200 employees of the Ashkelon Rottenberg electric power station
received notice to report for work on leil Shabbos parshas
Vayishlach to take care of some repairs. However, because
of the intervention of MK Rabbi Meir Porush, the Israel
Electric Company retracted the notices at the last minute and
notified the employees that the planned work had been
canceled.
Heads of the Committee for the Sake of Shabbos have been
complaining for a long time about serious digressions by the
Israel Electric Company regarding maintenance and repair work
that involves massive Shabbos desecration. According to Rabbi
Tzvi Glassner, head of the Committee, these jobs could be
completed during the week without any need to employ workers on
Shabbos kodesh.
A number of religious workers asked the Committee for the Sake
of Shabbos to do its utmost to prevent the work planned for
that particular Shabbos. These workers said that they involved
renovations which the Electric Company wants to make in the two
power stations: both the old and the new.
Rabbi Glassner wrote urgent letters to the heads of the Israel
Electric Company as well as to chareidi MKs, asking them to
prevent this Shabbos desecration. In a letter to the director
of the company, Eli Landau, Rabbi Glassier stressed: "This
protracted disgrace of doing repairs on Shabbos is against the
law, in addition to its being a serious affront to the sanctity
of Shabbos."
In his letter, Rabbi Glassner notes that despite repeated
warnings, Shabbos work in the Ashkelon stations has been taking
place for a long time. In a letter to the chareidi Knesset
members, Rabbi Glassner demanded a comprehensive investigation
of the issue. "The obligations for Shabbos observance in a
government company should be clarified."
Rabbi Glassner says that the issue involves mostly temporary
employees, whose refusal to work on Shabbos would probably
result in their dismissal. He also noted that in most cases,
Shabbos desecration has been prevented at the last minute due
to the efforts of government ministers and communal leaders.
However there have been cases in which the Shabbos desecration
was not discovered in time, and Jews were forced to work on
Shabbos.
In the above-mentioned case, MK Rabbi Meir Porush spoke at
length with the company director, Dr. Rozen, who promised to
cancel the planned work, and the workers did indeed receive
such notice.
The Israel Electric Company has no work permits for maintenance
and repair jobs on Shabbos. Instead, it takes advantage of the
huge amount of Shabbos work permits which were issued to the
company, using these permits to conduct maintenance and repairs
on Shabbos for which permits were never issued.
Rabbi Glassner notes that in the past, the Minister of Welfare
and Labor has been asked to investigate the issue of Shabbos
work at both the old and the new Ashkelon power stations. He
said that this scandalous situation must be examined by an
objective committee which will ascertain how the Electric
Company is illegally taking advantage of its work permits.
Rabbi Glassner noted that the terrible Shabbos desecration
atmosphere prevailing in the Company has resulted in a
situation in which mitzvah-observant Jews are rarely employed
there. Out of the company's 10,000 employees, its very few
religious workers are ba'alei teshuvah who had been
employed by the company before they became religious.
