Did Pinhas Idan lead a strike or not? It turns out to be a significant question

Concept

Strike: A work stoppage by employees aimed at exerting pressure on the employer to meet their demands.

Actual context

The disruptions at Ben Gurion Airport have raised not only the question of the limits of the right to strike in essential services, but also the preliminary question of whether what happened there is considered a strike at all. While the Israel Airports Authority claimed there were disruptions under the guidance of the workers' committee, the committee denied that an instruction to stop work was given, citing a system collapse due to a manpower shortage. This is not just a semantic debate, as it carries practical and legal consequences.

What is the definition of a strike?

The "classic" strike is an economic strike aimed against the employer to protect or improve employment conditions. This can also be directed against the government, but only in its capacity as an employer (for example, when the government decides to change salary conditions for public sector employees).

In the Settlement of Labor Disputes Law, a strike is defined as "an organized work stoppage, full or partial, of a group of employees, including a slowdown strike and other organized interference with the normal course of work." A strike of this type has been recognized in Israeli law since the state's inception and is perceived as legitimate.

According to the Collective Agreements Law, a strike is not a breach of a personal contract, and employees cannot be fired for participating in one. At the same time, a strike does not entitle employees to wages.

Although the right to strike is recognized in practice, the Israel Democracy Institute notes that in the State of Israel, the strike is not anchored in law as a basic human or civil right, and there is no law that explicitly grants citizens the right to strike.

How common are strikes in Israel? Over the years, the number of strikes has decreased, but the number of working days lost due to strikes has not followed the same trend, partly due to the expansion of the economy.

When is it allowed to strike?

Dr. Lilach Litor, a researcher and lecturer at the Open University, explains that in Israel, the organizational doctrine prevails, according to which a legitimate strike is only one declared by a representative workers' organization. Strikes declared by individual employees or other factors have not been recognized as legitimate over the years.

Furthermore, according to section 5a of the Settlement of Labor Disputes Law, a labor dispute must be declared 15 days before the strike. Such a declaration must be delivered to both the other party and the Chief Commissioner for Labor Relations at the Ministry of Labor (currently Adv. Rivka Varvner).

"If no prior notice is given in the form of a declaration of a labor dispute before the strike begins, then we are dealing with a wildcat strike that is not legitimate," says Litor.