The State Prosecutor's Office instructed the police to open a criminal investigation against seven local authorities suspected of using employees' pension funds and for other purposes among other criminal offenses.

On Wednesday, the State Prosecution informed the High Court of Justice of the move as a response to a petition submitted by the Histadrut labor federation against the State Prosecutor Eran Shendar and the Attorney General Menachem Mazuz for previously refusing to launch criminal investigations against local authorities.

"The general stance in this country is that there is no room for the use of tools reserved for criminals in dealing with the wage crisis, seeing as this is a complex crisis stemming from numerous causes, some of which are not within the control of the local authorities," read the statement issued by the justice ministry. "Therefore, it is fitting that the handling of the crisis will be done using administrative and civilian tools, such as a detailed rehabilitation plan. However, in exceptional cases, criminal proceedings will be considered."

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For months, the Histadrut labor federation has been battling a number of debt-stricken local authorities over failure to pay wages, and failure to allocate funds to employees' pensions.