Employees of Israel’s Mizrahi-Tefahot banks on Wednesday, 10 Av, did not work but decided to strike all branches. They blame management’s plan to implement a new 2016-2017 salary agreement for the strike.

Workers claim that beyond salary update requirement of the past two years, it is about 4,300 employees whose salaries have not been updated for more than a decade. It should be noted that the wage itself is one component of the banker’s salary, with additional benefits (bonuses) that are reflected in their pay slips.

The management of Mizrahi-Tefahot said in response: “All the hundreds of managers at the bank, who are not members of the workers’ organization, will report to work, open the branches and act to serve the customers. And at the bank itself.

“Apart from service at the branches, customers will be able to receive service at the Bank’s telephone banking center and of course they will be able to operate through the website and the application of Mizrahi-Tefahot.

Employee representatives explain, “The chairman of the committee makes a grave mistake if he thinks that through violent moves, he will achieve what he wants. The opposite is true: the bank’s management has unequivocally announced that it will not hold talks under the threat of downtime and disruptions of any kind. The far-reaching significance of the bank’s employees is that the committee, in its violent and irresponsible actions, endangers the management’s extraordinary agreement to significantly improve their salaries.

“All the responsibility for this will be on the head of the committee, and bank employees will soon discover who really works for their benefit and who harms them and their source of income.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)