The universities' academic staff will strike for one day Sunday, after the Finance Ministry rejected their salary demands.

The lecturers are also protesting a refusal by the Shochat Committee, which is discussing higher education reforms, to promise that new contracts will not be forced on them. Their last contract expired five years ago.

Professor Zvi Hacohen, the union chairman, said that efforts to draft a new contract have stalled, as last Wednesday, treasury representatives rejected demands that compensation for wage erosion over the intervening five years be included in the new contract.

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The treasury said in response that at that meeting, "it was agreed that each side would review the other party's demands. It is strange that the lecturers seek to impose unilateral sanctions when negotiations have not been exhausted."

An umbrella group representing the academic unions also claimed that "the Shochat Committee lent a hand to a measure that will damage education." The group claims that the committee plans to force universities to implement personal contracts and merit-based pay for lecturers.

Last week, the committee said its recommendations would not be used to impose new wage agreements. However, Finance Ministry representative Kobi Haber refused to commit to this pledge.

Two national student organizations announced last week that they plan to block the start of the second semester in early March to protest the Shochat Committee's deliberations.