A large number of local authorities are still depriving their employees of wages despite a Finance Ministry announcement of allocating NIS 70 million to clear their salary debts, according to a report published by the Histadrut Labor Federation on Sunday.

The report was prepared ahead of a deliberation scheduled by President of the National Labor Tribunal Steve Adler, who expects to receive an update on the progress in resolving the wage crisis at the local authorities.

According to the report, little has changed in relation to unpaid wages since the general strike imposed by the Histadrut nearly three weeks ago. The Labor Federation alleges that 44 local authorities are still in debt to their employees, 31 of them have not paid their employees their October wages and all but one are already late in paying the November salaries.

	Advertisement

After matching the data provided by the Treasury with wage payment reports by the local authorities, the Histadrut concluded that not all funds were used to pay overdue salaries. According to the Histadrut only eight local authorities have cleared their debts to their employees.

Histadrut chairman Ofer Eini says the non-payment crisis is far from being over. "If indeed monies injected to the local authorities had not been used to pay the employees this is a serious failure," he said.

"A one-time allocation is all but efficient if the government does not sanction the mayors responsible for salary non-payment. But the Interior Ministry is vehemently opposed to sanctioning," he added.

The report indicates that religious councils also continue to be marred by salary non-payment, as last week 32 councils reported salary debts. The Firefighters of the Beit Shemesh municipality have joined the circle of not been paid their

Only five local authorities have managed to break free from the vicious cycle of salary non-payment: Iksal, Basma, Jisr al-Zarqa, M'iliya and Tamra.