In the last weeks of August, it looked likely that schools would not open. The ongoing labor dispute between the Teachers’ Union and the Finance Ministry showed no signs of resolving itself, with Yaffa Ben-David, head of the Teachers’ Union, threatening to strike and delay the start of the school year.
However, last week the negotiations paid off, and just in time. The Teachers' Union and the Ministry of Finance signed a document of principles for a new salary agreement, which will apply to approximately 140,000 teaching staff. This is a preliminary document of principles and not a final agreement, and many questions will ultimately be resolved in the small details of the agreement, which will be drafted in the coming months.
The principles of the signed agreement can tell us much about the core issues in this ongoing dispute.
1. The salary of veteran teachers. As part of the agreement, the salary of the teaching staff will increase by at least 1,100 shekels (around $320) per month, a salary increase of at least 8.7% on average. Compared to the previous proposals of the Ministry of Finance, some of which eroded the salaries of veteran teachers, this is an improvement. The Teachers' Union insisted that the wages of all teachers be improved, even those who earn a higher-than-average wage. However, the biggest question is how the increase will be spread out over time. The salary agreement will be in effect until the end of 2026, and the increments that will result in increases of 1,100 shekels will be staggered. With high inflation, the question is how much of the increase will be implemented in this coming year.
2. Personal contracts. One of the biggest demands of the Ministry of Finance was to provide the possibility to employ 10% of the teachers on a personal contract, i.e. not through the collective agreement, and at a salary determined by the school principal. This change may have a profound effect on the education system, by creating two classes of teachers: teachers part of the union and under a collective agreement, and teachers under individual contracts.
The signed agreement of principles includes "the possibility of personal contracts for experts outside the system.” Under this vague wording, it is difficult to know what the scope of the phenomenon will be, who will be defined as an “expert,” and what the conditions under which one can be employed will be. These things will become clear only after the publication of the final details of the agreement.
3. The salary for new teachers. According to the signed agreement, the salary for a beginning teacher will rise to 9,000 shekels (around $2,640) for a full-time position, compared to 6,800 shekels ($1,994) today, an increase of 32%. In addition, there will be a gradual increase to a 100% full-time position for a new teacher, and an additional grant of 10,000 shekels (around $2,933) after 3 years. Although this salary is lower than the demand of the Teachers Union which was 10,500 shekels ($3,080) per month, it is a significant increase, reflecting the fact that on this issue there was a relative unanimity between the parties.
4. Encouraging excellence. The Ministry of Finance placed a lot of emphasis on reducing the seniority component in teachers' salaries and replacing it with a salary based on indicators of excellence. This demand allows for the principal to give a reward of 400 to 1,000 shekels, which they could distribute to teachers for taking initiative or taking a position. This section also remains unresolved until the final wording becomes clear. On the basis of the existing wording, it can be said that this is not a “bonus” given by the principal to the teachers as directed by the Ministry of Finance, but rather an expansion of the principal's possibilities to create roles and responsibilities for leading teachers.
5. Expanding the possibility of layoffs. This section, which was at the heart of the Ministry of Finance's requirements, remains completely closed under the heading "streamlining the layoff process."
6. Vacation days. In contrast to Lieberman's grandiose statements about shortening the summer break, the Ministry of Finance finally settled on a solution that the teachers said in advance was acceptable to them: transferring the vacation days from “Isru Chag” (the days after Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot) to the days between Yom Kippur and Sukkot, and keeping school in session on Lag B'Omer. The teachers even received a nice achievement: for the first time they will have two flexible vacation days, unlike the situation today where they cannot take vacations during the year.
The bottom line: The new salary agreement contains a significant salary increase for all teaching staff, as demanded by the Teachers Union. The pace of the wage increments will play a major role in how effective the agreement is, and will determine how quickly the improvement in conditions will be felt.
The Ministry of Finance failed to bring about the revolution it promised in how it wants to relate to teachers on the one hand, but it certainly got a foot in the door. The question of whether the education system will change will be determined by the details of the agreement, its implementation on the ground, and the requirements that will follow.
This article was translated from Hebrew by Matt Levy.
