Israeli court prevents teachers’ union’s strike, classes will continue as usual

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The Tel Aviv Labor Court issued injunctions Thursday against the teachers’ union, cancelling the strike announced Wednesday night by the organization’s secretary general Yaffa Ben David.

The protest was a response to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s announcement that schoolchildren will not be required to quarantine if exposed to a confirmed COVID carrier and all students – vaccinated or not – will require to undergo two home antigen tests per week before going to school.

The plan will go into effect on Thursday, despite calls by Health Ministry officials to delay it. All students must also get tested for the first time on Thursday.

The tribunal justified its decision by saying that the notice of a strike had arrived only 11 hours before the school day so that sufficient time could not be given for an appropriate hearing on the matter. A discussion between the parties will be held Thursday afternoon.

Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton said that “forceful and political measures on the backs of Israeli children are inappropriate and unacceptable, certainly during such challenging days.”

The influential Israel Teachers Union had called on its members not to go to work on Thursday, in protest of the new measure.

The union represents some 150,000 teachers in most age groups. The law stipulates that unions first announce a labor dispute, and only after two weeks go on strike.

Officials at the union admitted they had no legal power to call the strike, but say they were left with no alternative after their attempts to influence policy in talks with government officials had failed.

Health Ministry officials advised the cabinet to postpone the exemption for children by 10 days, and the organization representing Israel’s pediatricians said it was “raising a red flag,” citing a rise in infections and hospitalizations among minors.

Students testing negative would be free to attend school. Students testing positive would be required to do another antigen test through an established medical care provider. If that test were negative, they would be free to go to school. If positive, they would go into quarantine for five days.

Additionally, a student who is exposed to a COVID carrier will continue to attend school as usual. The Health Ministry recommends those who have a close and direct exposure with a COVID patient get tested every day for five days.

The new rules apply to all students, from preschool through high school. The Education Ministry said it will distribute 35 million home testing kits to schools and preschools for students to use in the coming weeks.

Students who are at high-risk of serious infection, or those with high-risk family members, are not required to come to school for the next month, however, schools are also not required to facilitate remote learning for those who stay home.

Senior Health Ministry officials met on Monday with representatives of the Israel Pediatric Association and a union of intensive care pediatricians. They looked at hospitalization rates and the number of serious cases, as well as cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome, known as PIMS, which causes a fever and extreme inflammation in children.

At Monday’s meeting, it was decided there was no reason to defer the quarantine exemption. Even on Tuesday, the pediatric association’s chairman, Prof. Tazhi Grossman, told Haaretz that “there’s some increase in hospitalizations and preliminary reports of the PIMS phenomenon, but not in massive numbers that would justify halting the plan.”

But overnight, after revised figures were received indicating overcrowding in hospital pediatric departments, the decision was reversed – as Grossman explained on Wednesday on Kan Bet public radio. “Things change quickly with this pandemic,” he said. “Last night, we at the Israel Pediatric Association conferred among ourselves about the hospitalization numbers – about 130 hospitalizations, including 20 in serious condition. Just four days ago, there were 11 in serious condition,” he said.

“Within four days, we have seen a doubling of the number of hospitalized children in serious condition,” he said. “In yesterday’s discussion among pediatric department directors, there were those who spoke about hospital overcrowding. … Over the past half a day, our colleagues in the field have alerted us to say ‘stop.'”

Grossman said that at this point he can’t say how long the plan to nix quarantines should be stalled for. “At least for a week,” he said. “We need to see what happens with the rate of illness in general, but there’s no doubt that incidences of illness in general are also producing cases in pediatric departments – hospitalizations.”