If you ask any Israeli, one of the pet peeves regarding Israel Electric Company is the fact that employees benefit from free electricity in addition to earning more than the national average.

Minister of Finance Dr. Yuval Shteinitz agrees and he is confident that he reform package for the nation’s utility will pass, hoping to cut the free electric perk for employees that costs the nation 160 million NIS annually. Shteinitz simply feels such a job benefit is out of place and it must end, adding especially as the treasury addresses the utility’s staggering 1.4 billion NIS debt which is the result of IEC management erroneous calculations regarding the cost of electricity.

According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, the average IEC employee earns 24,000 NIS monthly, about three times the national average.

Shteinitz feels the directors of the utility have not acted properly for the past 30 years and he feels his reform package, which he reports is about 80% complete, will put the electric company on the correct track.

Mickey Tzarfati, who heads the IEC labor union responded by stating “Over my dead body will they do anything to my workers or their pensions. To announce Israel Electric [workers] earns more is nonsense. There is no connection between job benefits and the utility’s fiscal issues. ”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)