Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer decided Monday to cancel a press conference scheduled for later in the day, in which he was expected to make a dramatic announcement, after reaching an agreement with Finance Minister Abraham Hirchson.

Bank of Israel employees on Monday declared a general strike to go into effect immediately, as ongoing negotiations with state authorities over their general salary agreement hit a new deadlock.

Hirchson told Fischer said he intends to conduct negotiations in order to formulate a new wage agreement for Bank of Israel employees within 48 hours.

	Advertisement

At the same time, the Treasury is freezing the summons for hearings issued to to several bank employees accused by the Treasury's wages commissioner, Eli Cohen, of receiving excessive benefits that are uncustomary for state workers.

According to Army Radio, Fisher told Hirchson he has no intention of resigning.

In the latest turn of events in a four-year saga, Bank of Israel employees decided to go on strike Sunday night after Fischer called on Cohen to make every effort to bring salary negotiations to completion.

Cohen responded by saying that responsibility for drawing employment agreements lies with the bank, and proceeded to issue the summons for hearings to bank employees.

Starting at 12.00 P.M. Monday, all bank employees left their positions, ceasing to stock ATM machines with cash, withholding surpluses from the stock exchange and refraining from investing foreign currency. It is not yet clear if the bank will publish Monday's foreign currency exchange rates.

"The bank's employees will not serve as anyone's punching bag," the head of the Bank of Israel worker's union said, adding "the Treasury's wages commissioner has been acting systematically for many months to curb any agreement with the Bank of Israel, while mudslinging the bank's employees, in order to undermine the Bank of Israel's managerial independence."

Chairman of the bank workers' division at the Histadrut, Tzion Shema, said that the labor federation would offer its full backing to the struggle waged by Bank of Israel employees.