Secretary general of the Histadrut labor federation Ofer Eini on Sunday warned Finance Minister Avraham Hirchson and Interior Minister Roni Bar-On that the Histadrut would declare a general strike in two weeks' time, if the wage crisis in the local authorities is not resolved.

The Histadrut has been working for months to ensure that the debt-stricken local authorities are able to execute timely payments of their employees' salaries and benefits. In a large number of local authorities, employees have had to continue working without pay for months. In others, employers have withheld payment of benefits and pensions.

According to the Histadrut, the state failed to make funds available for overdue wages to several local authorities by Rosh Hashanah.

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Employees of the following local authorities were promised to be paid three-months-worth of overdue salaries by late September: Yesod Hama'alah, Ilabun, Immanuel, Daliat al-Carmel, Iblin, Julis, Rami, Jisr a-Zarqa, Kafr Qasem, Kafr Yasif and Taibeh.

In other local authorities, overdue salaries have been paid, but September wages have not, including in Tira, Zarzir, Bir al-Maksur, Katzir-Harish, Kalansua, Ofakim and Kiryat Shmona.

The Histadrut estimates that approximately 40,000 local authority employees have not received their employer contributions to pension and other funds in recent months.

Eini reiterated that the Histadrut had already announced a dispute in July, agreeing to delay its implementation to allow signing an agreement that would resolve the problem of unpaid pension and benefits.

"Unfortunately, the promised outline was not arranged by the deadline," Eini said. "Worse still, in a conversation with the Histadrut negotiators, it emerged that key fundamental components of this agreement are still amiss, despite promises made by the state."

"Moreover, I learned that in many of the local authorities employers are once more depriving employees of their wages," he added.

The Histadrut leader warned he intends "to act, in any way and with all means, including the harshest, to end this phenomenon and prevent its recurrence."

"Unless two weeks from (Sunday) at the latest, an outline of a payment plan for local authorities' debt to [benefits] funds is secured, and a lasting solution is found to end the nonpayment of salaries and benefits, I will have no choice but to take all the necessary and appropriate steps," Eini said.