MKs and Knesset employees find themselves without lunch on Monday when cafeteria workers go on strike for the three busiest hours of the workday to protest their employment conditions.

They demonstrated outside the Knesset from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in the presence of MKs and social activists. The 50 workers in the Knesset’s three cafeterias are contract employees of Shefa Food Services. Last week, they received notice that they would be fired as of Wednesday.

Most cafeteria workers are fired twice a year, when the Knesset’s recesses begin. They are then rehired when the recesses end. Wednesday is the last day of the winter session. However, Shefa’s contract with the Knesset also ends on Wednesday, and because the Knesset’s management has yet to choose a new catering company for the three cafeterias, the employees are uncertain about their future job status.

MK Dov Khenin (Hadash), head of the Direct Employment lobby sent a letter to Knesset director-general Dan Landau in which he said the cafeteria workers “do not receive a salary for many months of each year, and suffer from insecurity in their working situation and repeated disruptions in their ability to gain seniority, which would give them better salaries and social benefits.” MK Khenin added that the Knesset should ensure the rights of all its employees, especially contract workers. He also demanded Landau to consider direct employment for the cafeteria workers. Nitzan Tanami, leader of the Coalition for Direct Employment, which is organizing the strike and protest, called on Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin to intervene and prevent the cafeteria workers from being fired. She added that contract work was unacceptable and must be eliminated, and that the Knesset should serve as an example to the rest of the country.