MKs voted on Monday a bill who delays raises in government employees’ pay until December 2014 or later, depending on agreements with the Histadrut labor union. The bill, which implements a compromise agreement between Finance Minister Yair Lapid and Histadrut head Ofer Eini, a member of the Labor party. All the workers who members of the Histadrut will receive a pay cut of around 1%. The bill’s explanatory portion explains an “immediate fiscal policy change is necessary to prevent the market from rapidly declining and reaching an economic crisis situation. As such, it seeks to limit the sharp increase in government spending on salaries.”

MK Muhammad Barakeh (Hadash chairman) took issue with the bill, saying in the plenum that workers should not pay the price for the government’s failure and the capitalist crisis. “Opposition” MK Yitzhak Herzog (Labor) acknowledged that cutting the wages of workers was “painful”, but nevertheless called the move a necessity. The bill passed in its first reading with 38 MKs in favor and 15 opposed.