The Haifa Labor Court on Tuesday ordered employees of the Israel Electric Corporation to hold off disruption of electricity supplies until Wednesday morning at 10 A.M.

The employees earlier Tuesday abandoned their posts at the majority of company installations around the country, in response to government reforms set to be introduced in the company.

The workers announced they would respect the court's order.

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IEC executives have entered an emergency session to deal with the matter of the employee strike.

The chairman of the IEC's workers' committee has stated that the strikes have no time limit and that in the meantime, employees would not repair electrical malfunctions. However, they will make efforts to ensure that hospitals and security installations retain their power supply.

This week, the government approved a series of reforms dealing with the IEC, which may mean division and large-scale privatization of the company by 2013. The workers' committee met at the beginning of the week and declared plans to take organized steps against the reforms.

Finance Minister Abraham Hirchson and Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer issued a joint response to the work stoppage, saying that they were devoted to passing the reforms for the sake of the citizens of Israel, the corporation, and its employees.

As required by law, 6 months were allocated for holding negotiations between the corporation and its employees, to ensure that they would not loose any of their rights, and in order to come to an agreement with them over the reforms.

General Secretary of the professional workers branch of the Histadrut Labor Federation, Tzachi Tabakman, is expected to hold a press conference Tuesday evening as a result of the steps taken by the electric corporation workers.

According to Tabakman, "The government has come to a strategic decision to ignore workers concerns and to avoid discussions with the labor federation on all fronts. This is what happened in the local authorities' offices and in the electric corporation. The government doesn't understand what the employers have understood for a long time - that disagreements are solved only through speaking and not through decisions, or unilateral legislation."