The Knesset Committee approved today (Tuesday) the recommendations of the Public Committee for Determining Salaries and Other Payments for Members of Knesset, regarding the salaries and working conditions of parliamentary assistants.<\/p>\r\n
The committee's decision ends a long chapter in the parliamentary assistants' struggle to improve their working conditions, since they organized inHistadrut<\/b> In June 2013, and in fact a struggle that lasted several years.<\/p>\r\n
Several months ago, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein responded to the request of the parliamentary assistants' action committee and ordered the establishment of a team to examine ways to improve their conditions.<\/p>\r\n
The team included representatives of the Parliamentary Assistants Committee, the Knesset Speaker's Chief of Staff, the Knesset Accountant, a senior advisor to the Knesset Director General, the Knesset Committee's legal advisor, and the Histadrut Chairman's economic advisor. The team formulated a detailed document of understanding, which was adopted in its entirety by the Public Committee for Determining the Salaries of Knesset Members, after receiving the recommendations of the Knesset Speaker and Director General. These recommendations were approved today by the Knesset Committee.<\/p>\r\n
In light of the approval of the recommendations, the salaries of parliamentary assistants will be increased by a total rate of over 17%, and will be aligned with the salary agreements in the civil service. In addition, the monthly subsistence and travel allowances will be increased, with an increase of 50% for parliamentary advisors living more than 150 km from the Knesset.<\/p>\r\n
In addition, the ceiling for seniority addition was increased from 40% to 60% of the base salary, with a significant improvement in the salary horizon of assistants. As part of seniority, external seniority, accumulated before starting work, as is customary for employees in the civil service, will also be taken into account.<\/p>\r\n
The annual clothing allowance was updated as is customary among civil servants. The committee also accepted the recommendations regarding changing the job title, so that it reflects the nature and complexity of the work, and from now on, instead of "professional parliamentary assistant" and "administrative parliamentary assistant", the term "parliamentary advisor" will be used uniformly.<\/p>\r\n
Many Knesset members participated in the discussion and welcomed the move, which will not only improve the conditions of parliamentary assistants, but will also allow MKs themselves to act more correctly and effectively in parliamentary and legislative work, with the "parliamentary advisors" being more appropriately compensated.<\/p>\r\n
Chairman of the Knesset Committee MK Yariv Levin<\/b> He said: "The current situation of the assistants is inappropriate. An unprecedented attempt has been made here with a courageous approach and there is indeed a significant improvement in salary conditions. However, I feel that a real revolution is still needed on the issue and I hope that the handling of the parliamentary advisors issue will continue.".<\/p>\r\n
Parliamentary Assistants Committee<\/b> He responded to the decision: "We welcome this historic decision. We have embarked on a struggle for our rights with the goal of recognizing parliamentary consulting as a profession and as a permanent and respectable job. The parliamentary assistant is a tool for realizing the abilities of a member of Knesset in his public mission and a tool for strengthening democracy in Israel. We are at the beginning of a new path and thank the Speaker of the Knesset, the Director General of the Knesset and the Chairman of the Histadrut for accompanying the struggle.".<\/p>\r\n
Chairman of the Public Committee for Determining the Salaries of Knesset Members, Prof. Haim Levy<\/b> He said at the hearing that this was an exceptional case that had been under discussion for several years. "It was important to us that the high turnover of parliamentary assistants be reduced and we wanted to improve the quality of the employees. Therefore, we were convinced to adopt the agreement. We met with all those involved, and to our delight, most of the points were agreed upon in early discussions between the Knesset management, the Histadrut, and the parliamentary assistants.".<\/p>\r\n
Knesset Director General Ronen Plot<\/b> He said: "This is a festive day for parliamentary assistants, but also a festive day for the Knesset. At the direction of Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, I personally, along with a large team, invested a huge effort to bring about a solution and a real horizon for the parliamentary assistants. After years of this not succeeding, I am very happy that we succeeded this time and thank those who dealt with the issue, the public committee headed by Prof. Haim Levy, the Knesset committee headed by MK Yariv Levin, the Knesset negotiation managers Albert Sakharovitz and Pini Mor, the parliamentary assistants, Shai Biran and of course the chairman of the Histadrut, Avi Nissenkorn.".<\/p>\r\n
Histadrut Chairman Avi Nissenkorn<\/b>, said: "This is a significant milestone for the parliamentary advisors in the Israeli Knesset. I would like to personally thank the Speaker and the Director General of the Knesset for the involvement and cooperation they demonstrated throughout the entire process, out of understanding the importance of the role of the parliamentary advisors.".<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Knesset Committee decided: The salaries of parliamentary advisors will be increased by a total rate of over 17% and will be aligned with the salary agreements in the civil service \u2022 and their titles will also change","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[5376,32316,5377,3297,3114],"class_list":["post-41259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-93","tag-5376","tag-32316","tag-5377","tag-3297","tag-3114"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n