מקימי בית ההשקעות דש איפקס מוכרים את יתרת אחזקותיהם

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Minister Meir Sheetrit (also assigned to the treasury), and other government ministers, as well as Bank of Israel Governor David Klein, have all ignored - in thunderous, infuriating silence - the Rachlevsky report released Tuesday on public sector wages in 2001.

The central focus of the report is the amazing information on the salaries of the top decile of employees at government-funded enterprises. These highly paid public servants also happen to be unanimous in their opposition to raising the minimum wage.

The silence of the prime minister, who was directly in charge of the Government Companies Authority until the beginning of this week, and the silence of the treasury ministers, who plan next week to cut social welfare benefits for children and the disabled, together with the silence of central bank governor - all indicate their disdain for the public and for the moral importance of the information contained in the report.

In fact, only a few members of Knesset and reporters gave serious attention to the report. Considering the indifference, alienation and contempt shown by policymakers, and the unfortunate fact that the report has no real impact, it seems that the media will also soon begin to ignore this annual report.

In the previous report (on public sector wages in 2000), the three highest monthly salary packages listed were NIS 76,571, NIS 74,830 and NIS 73,008 (not including retroactive payments and severance pay). In the current report (on public sector wages in 2001), the top three salary packages ballooned to NIS 137,809, NIS 112,716 and NIS 109,516. This represents a jump of over 50% in a year that marked the beginning of a deep recession.

The steep jump in top salaries is due to the fact that the salaries of doctors at publicly funded HMOs were included in the report for the first time. The HMOs opposed the persistent demand by the treasury's wages director, Yuval Rachlevsky, to make public the generous salaries received by a small number of their doctors.

But the High Court of Justice did right by rejecting a petition from the HMOs. Just as there was no justification in the past to pay the head of a small private bank (Shlomo Piotrkowsky) monthly wages of over NIS 200,000, there is also no reason today to pay department heads or unit directors at hospitals owned by HMOs salary packages of over NIS 100,000.

The report of the wages director covers the salaries of 280,000 workers, comprising about half of the public sector. He plans to issue a similar report on the government and defense sectors by 2004. It seems certain that exorbitant salaries will also be revealed in this report. Rachlevsky estimated yesterday that there are about 1,500 employees in these sectors who earn more than a director-general of a government ministry.

Israel in the 21st century is knowingly widening its social gaps. The days are gone - though they were not so long ago - when the state's leaders took pride in the small salary differentials in Israel, the smallest of any Western nation.

The public sector salary cuts Netanyahu proposes next week as part of the government's new economic program should be progressive - a higher percentage should be chopped from very high wage earners, a moderate cut should be implemented for middle earners and a only small reduction should be made in the salaries of those who earn the least.