Mr. President, 

Distinguished Delegates,

As a former chairman of the workers' committee in one of the largest companies in Israel, and as the chairman of the former Labor, Welfare and Health Committee of the Israeli Knesset for six years, a period in which I have legislated over 180 laws, most of which concern the Israeli labor world, it is a great honor for me to stand here today as the Minister of Labor, Social Affairs and Social Services of the State of Israel.  

I would like to congratulate the Director-General of the ILO, Mr. Guy Ryder, and the organization itself and its many activists, on the occasion of the organization's 100th anniversary. During the hundred years of its existence the organization has succeeded in attaining impressive achievements in the creation of values and the adoption of norms and rights in the field of labor, which presently seem so obvious to us. 

Over the years of our membership of the organization we have taken pains to preserve our commitment to strive to maintain the standards adopted by the organization throughout its years of activity. Throughout Israel's years of existence, we have toiled on the formulation of an impressive base of labor laws in order to ensure workers' rights to live with human dignity. At the same time, until the present day Israel has ratified about 50 conventions, naturally including the eight fundamental Conventions. 

The subject of the future world of work, the initiative of the Director-General Mr. Ryder, and I congratulate him on this, is one of the most fascinating fields of our time and is slated to constitute one of the great forces of change in the labor market, and indeed this subject is at the center of the social-economic agenda at my ministry. Thus, for example, the 2030 Committee has been established in Israel. This is a public committee for the preparation of the economy for the future labor market, and it is due to present me with its recommendations shortly. With all the surfacing concerns regarding the loss of employment opportunities as a result of the automation processes, alongside this hope exits, that these processes will also be able to simultaneously create new employment opportunities. 

However, we certainly cannot be complacent and let the market forces work on their own. One of the challenges facing us, for example, is career change, vocational training, development of skills and lifelong learning. 

Mr. President. Simultaneously with the attempts made to grapple with the challenge of the future, Israel continues its efforts to deal with the contemporary failures of the labor market, with the phenomenon of weakened employees, out of the perception of responsibility and commitment to these employees, based upon the aspiration to promote a more solidary and equalitarian society, while uncompromisingly striving towards containment of the values of diversification. 

I was pleased to read in the Centenary Declaration draft that its drafters did not skip the subject of the integration of persons with disabilities into society and the labor market. This subject enjoys great attention in the government policy in Israel. Particular emphasis should be placed on the fact that this group is not made up of one mass and we must consider its heterogeneity, the complexity of its needs and the range of solutions and accessibility methods for them.

Mr. President,

The subject of enforcement of labor laws has attracted a special attention from the government. I have had the honor, by virtue of my previous position in the Knesset as the Chairman of the Labor, Welfare and Health Committee, to take part in the tripartite efforts for the enactment of the Law for Increased Enforcement of Labor Laws.

The Law, whose implementation I am responsible for as the current Minister of Labor, Social Affairs and Social Services, has led to the strengthening of the abilities of the enforcement system to effectively enforce the labor laws, to better protect the employees and thereby improve the actual working conditions of all the workers in the economy, and of the poorly paid workers in particular. 

Simultaneously, by virtue of my position as Minister of Labor, Social Affairs and Social Services, I have greatly campaigned for a change in the norms that were acceptable in the field of safety in the construction industry, in order to arrive at a turning point in the field and eradicate the scale of work related casualties in the construction industry, whether by increasing the number of inspector slots, improving the working conditions of the labor inspectors and enacting regulations for the imposition of financial sanctions on the violators of safety provisions. Additional legislative initiatives for the improvement of the situation are being examined as part of our work in progress. 

Another focus of activity that the Government of Israel is dealing with and also accompanies several countries in this organization is the phenomenon of foreign workers. The Government of Israel is making efforts to promote bilateral agreements for bringing foreign workers with the aim of ensuring a supervised and controlled recruitment of workers from abroad, while eradicating unlawful phenomena such as abuse and the illegal collection of commissions from these workers. 

Nevertheless, the government policy is to prefer to employ Palestinian workers over foreign workers. During recent years there has been a significant increase in the number of Palestinian workers employed in Israel. It is clear to the Israeli Government that a steadfast socioeconomic state is essential for the improvement of the welfare of the Palestinians and the establishment of a sustainable peace between them and us. 

At this point, we cannot ignore the cynical use the Palestinians make of this conference. The President of the Palestinian Authority, in his speech a couple of days ago, slandered and accused Israel without taking responsibility for the way the Palestinian Authority treats their own workers. This is unacceptable.

The welfare of the Palestinian workers is important to Israel, and we do our best, in spite of objective limitations, which are the result of the unwillingness of the Palestinians to hold direct negotiations to end the conflict.

To sum up, Mr. President: in order to meet all the challenges placed before us, close cooperation between the government and the employees and employers organizations is vital. In 1985 Israel was facing one of its darkest hours from the economic aspect, when inflation skyrocketed to about 500% per annum. Only by means of cooperation between all the elements in the economy, with each party contributing its share, did Israel succeed in overcoming the inflation and in fact in eradicating this phenomenon. I hope that we will be capable of preserving this pattern of activity so that together we can correctly address the important challenges for the next hundred years of the organization, including, as aforesaid the challenge of the future world of work.

Thank you Mr. President.