Vision to Reality: The Reut Blog

An economic delegation of the OECD arrived to Israel at the beginning of September to learn about the ’roundtable’ concept and about the cooperation between employers and employees unions (For the article in Hebrew, click here). Discussing the visit, the head of the delegation, Andrew Dean said that “this is the first time we have witnessed such cooperation between employers and employees”.

The OECD delegation met with the chairman of the Federation of Israeli Economic Organizations, Shraga Brosh and with the chairman of the Histadrut (labor union), Ofer Eini. At the meeting, the delegation was presented with the details of the ‘package deal’ that was designed by the ’roundtable’ as well as with the methods of cooperation between employers and employees which enable a better response to the challenges of the economic crisis.

While such cooperation between employers and employees is a good example, it isn’t enough. In order to achieve a leapfrog in Israel’s quality of life – in other words, to bring about the necessary modification in the structure of the economy and the labor market in a way that promotes innovation and inclusiveness – the government needs to take on an active and vigorous role in leading dialogue between all the relevant bodies.