TULKAREM, West Bank, Aug 21 (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of Palestinian workers in Israel held a one-day strike on Sunday to protest the decision to pay their wages into bank accounts, rather than cash.
This new method of payment is the result of an agreement between the Israeli and Palestinian authorities who wanted a more secure procedure, but employees are worried about hidden costs or taxes that would eat into their pay.
Some 200,000 Palestinians go daily to Israel or to the Jewish colonies to work there, for a salary more than twice higher than the salaries paid in the administration and the Palestinian companies.
The majority of them do not have bank accounts.
The new settlement procedures, with a one-dollar weekly transfer fee according to strikers, would be a boon for the financially troubled Palestinian Authority and Palestinian banks.
The Palestinian Labor Minister, Nasri Abu Jeich, defends a measure aimed at protecting the rights of workers and ensures that no new tax is planned.
At the Israeli Minister of Defence, it is specified that it will fully come into force on 1 January next and that it “will consolidate the Palestinian economy”.
“This will have many positive effects, such as securing retirement pensions for employees and reducing undeclared work,” it was said. (Report Adel Abu Neama and Nidal al-Mughrabi, with the contribution of Maayan Lubell Jrusalem, French version Sophie Louet)