Hadassah Medical Center CEO Avigdor Kaplan today released his pay slip, appended to a letter to hospital employees. The disclosure was in response to allegations by the hospital workers committee about his high salary cost as the hospital struggles with a huge deficit.
The pay slip shows that Kaplan's gross salary is NIS 105,000 a month, which he claims is less than the salaries of his predecessors. He also receives an allocation of NIS 5,000 a month into a provident fund. All hospital employees receive allocations to their provident funds. Kaplan added that, in October 2013, he agreed to a 10% pay cut to NIS 99,204 per month.
Hadassah Hospital refused a request by "Globes" last week to disclose the data, citing the Law for the Protection of Privacy. Kaplan released his pay slip in response to claims by the hospital's administrative and support staff workers committee chairman, Amnon Baruchian, that while management is seeking to fire 200 employees and is not paying salaries in full or vacation bonuses, the salary cost of Hadassah CEO Avigdor Kaplan was NIS 170,000 a month, and that the salary cost of VPs was NIS 70,000-80,000 a month. Hadassah Medical Center has a deficit of NIS 1.3 billion.
Baruchian earns a gross monthly salary of NIS 38,000-40,000 as a ward manager, even though he is not one.
"A oft-repeated lie does not turn into truth. I have declined until now to respond to the gross lies and libels by workers committee chairman Baruchian, but this time we crossed all limits, and I found it proper to show you the facts about my salary," says Kaplan in his letter.
"We are on the verge of signing a historic recovery agreement to save Hadassah, which includes substantial aid from the government and Hadassah Women's Zionist Organization of America, alongside the need for streamlining through cost-cutting and increased productivity. With all the hardships, including the need for layoffs, it is better to implement this agreement over any alternative. The measures we have implemented in the few months that I have been in this job are yielding results, and we have cut costs and increased productivity.
"The road for Hadassah's recovery is long, and without help from you and the government, we will not be able to complete it. Time is against us. I call on you to stand up and work together to save Hadassah, and not to allow the destruction of your livelihoods and the jeopardy to patients to continue."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 5, 2014
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