The Courts Administration has decided to employ a contractor in the Haifa courts even though his bid is so low he will not be able to pay janitorial staff minimum wage. In a highly unusual move, the Federation of Israeli Chambers Commerce demanded over the weekend that the tender in which the cleaning contractor was chosen, be canceled.

"The pricing of the bid does not allow the winner to uphold both the demands of the tender and the demands of the law regarding workers' rights," attorneys Michal Pereg and Dror Atari wrote to the courts' tenders committee.

Veteran cleaning company Moria, which submitted an unsuccessful bid that accounted for all mandatory wage costs and social benefits, obtained documents pertaining to the tender.

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The tender requires the contractor to supply 28 janitorial staff from 6:30 A.M until 6 P.M. in most places, and until 10 P.M. in some places. The winning bid was for NIS 6,384 per day, which translates into NIS 25.33 per hour for the cleaning staff. This sum is supposed to cover wage costs, cleaning supplies and profits for the supplier. However, calculations of minimum wage and social benefits amount to NIS 25 per hour for the first hour, rising to NIS 27.57 for later hours. Cleaning supplies are valued at a minimum of 75 agurot per hour and an 8 percent profit margin means NIS 2 per hour.

The winning bid is at least 15 percent below the minimum cost and does not calculate for any workers after 6 P.M.

"Either the contractor will be unable to perform the necessary work or will employ more workers without paying them properly. The miserable reality indicates it is easier to take the second route," Pereg and Atari write.

The pair also highlighted the fact that other bidders calculated additional jobs like windows and roofs that would be cleaned using repelling techniques and polishing large floor spaces, pricing these at tens of thousands of shekels. The winning bid covered them at NIS 7,400.

The Courts Administration stated it had not examined the charges in the letter over the weekend and was unable to comment for this report.