Sages have long since determined that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and this is an insight that probably holds true even today. There is no shortage of examples, but here is one that came from the government's desk last week: the five-year plan to reduce the wage gap between men and women in the public service.
One of the main recommendations in the reform in question relates to recognizing work from home by employees in parental positions as overtime. To be precise, the idea is that mothers who come home after an exhausting day at work will be able to continue working from home and receive payment for overtime. The hoped-for goal is that this step will ultimately allow those women to integrate into senior positions and uphold the principle of equality.
How can we ensure that these workers continue to maintain their careers from home and not just rest or clean the house? The solution according to the new reform is to place a time clock - probably in the women's homes or even inside their personal computers - that will monitor their work.
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It's a bit surprising that in the advanced technological age we live in, we've returned to the old, unsophisticated, Histadrut method of signing an employee card. Only this time it's done remotely. The problem is that just as in a government office any clerk can get up from their chair and go and talk for a long time with a colleague or run errands on their cell phone, so too can a diligent employee tick off a few laundry items between reading a professional report and sending an office email.
Efficiency is probably not the name of the game for the new program, which attempts to define work in quantitative terms, while all studies in the field indicate that a successful employee is one who demonstrates loyalty, responsibility, and especially creativity in their work and does not focus on meeting a rigid time frame.
Slaves of the 21st Century
But before that, let's talk for a moment about another problematic principle that the reform brings: Public service employees can take advantage of the option to work overtime from home only after they have completed the quota of regular work hours that day.
It is important to emphasize that this is not a split or shortened workday, but rather extended hours, and all that can be done is to pity that exhausted mother who left home at eight in the morning after getting the children ready for school and kindergarten, worked until five in the afternoon, rushed back to her family, took care of the children until nine in the evening, and then instead of resting... here she is again on the computer, updating herself with data and promoting projects. Does this seem like a normal life to you? Is this the equality that the government is talking about, or is this just another way to bind the worker - this time in the public sector - to modern slavery, which is more acceptable in the private sector?
And let me ask another question: Why, according to the new plan, only parents can exercise the option for overtime? Even if I don't have children yet or if my children have grown up and left home, I still believe that I still deserve compensation for the hours I work from home, right? Is it possible that the reform discriminates against me based on my family status?
Unfortunately, there are quite a few problems and 'holes' in the five-year plan that was presented to us with great enthusiasm and joy. In a certain sense, this reform also deepens the gap between the public and private sectors. For a mother who works in a similar position in the private sector will not have similar rights, so creating different work and wage norms is not a welcome step when we examine the Israeli labor market from a comprehensive and holistic perspective.
The bottom line is that we can only hope that the proposed reform – like many others that preceded it in the public sector – will simply dissolve and disappear. Despite the good intentions of the plan's planners, the impression is that it will not bring us peace and quiet.
