Hadassah Medical Center CEO Avigdor Kaplan has halved employees' January salaries. Employees who are single parents, or with children up to army age will face a 10% pay cut, and salaries of employees earning less than NIS 5,000 will not be touched. Kaplan's salary of NIS 100,000 a month will also be halved.
"The government has recently helped us in various ways, but regrettably, until the recovery plan is signed, the government will not transfer more money to Hadassah," said Kaplan in a letter to employees.
Hadassah Hospital is asking the government for a one-time NIS 300 million grant, while Hadassah Women's Organization of America is transferring just tens of millions of shekels a year. The hospital's annual expenses are NIS 2 billion, compared with income of NIS 1.7 billion, resulting in a cumulative deficit of NIS 1.3 billion. Part of the deficit is due to the large discounts awarded to healthcare funds, construction of a grandiose hospital tower, and huge salaries paid to doctors under private healthcare practices.
Hadassah Hospital administration and support staff workers committee chairman Amnon Baruchian said, "Hadassah's CEO, who has failed in his job to create a recovery plan for the hospital, is using the employees as hostages, harming them in the most violent way. The withholding of salaries falls on Kaplan's shoulders, and he should draw personal conclusions from his failure. We're examining all our legal options to protect the workers' rights that the hospital CEO is so crudely trampling."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 28, 2014
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