The Beer Sheba Regional Labor Court has ordered Rotem Amfert workers to return to work and halt all sanctions against Israel Chemicals (ICL), and for management to withdraw all dismissal notices.
The judge instructed the parties to return to the negotiating table and report back to him later this week regarding progress in the talks. ICL management has sent out 10 dismissal notices so far and plans to fire 127 workers as part of its recovery plan for the subsidiary.
The workers imposed sanctions late last week after negotiations broke down between the two sides over a competing plan proposed by the Histadrut Labor Federation involving early retirement with a generous package of benefits instead of layoffs.
On Jan. 13, the Histadrut approved the declaration of a work dispute at Dead Sea Works, another ICL subsidiary. The union at that company joined for the first time the dispute of other ICL subsidiaries against ICL management’s recovery plan.