The Education Ministry will pay guaranteed income stipends to
avreichim whose wives are on sabbatical after State
Comptroller and Ombudsman Micha Lindenstrauss issued a
directive this week negating a previous directive by Atty.
Amnon de Hartog, head of the Justice Ministry's department of
support funding, who told the Education Ministry to withhold
the stipends pending an inquiry into the matter.
Over a year ago the Education Ministry Guaranteed Income
Committee decided to change its policy, discontinuing payment
from the teachers' education fund (keren hishtalmut)
as of October 2004 to avreichim whose wives are on
unpaid leave.
Following efforts by Degel HaTorah's Bureau for Public
Inquiry in Bnei Brak, the State Comptroller and Ombudsman
determined that the committee is not authorized to alter or
cancel an administrative decision in the middle of the school
year.
Even after the Comptroller's directive, de Hartog told the
Education Ministry not to pay the stipends, claiming that he
was looking into the matter. After several weeks MK Rabbi
Moshe Gafni contacted the Attorney General and the State
Comptroller to ask them to uphold the teachers' rights and
the State Comptroller's decision.
On Monday Rabbi Gafni received a reply from the State
Comptroller indicating that the Justice Ministry had accepted
the stance of the director of the Office of the Ombudsman
that the avreichim whose wives filed complaints should
be paid for all of the 5765 school year. Nevertheless, the
Comptroller notes, the Justice Ministry's remark that "the
total sum of family income during the sabbatical year,
including the subsistence stipend for guaranteed income for
avreichim, should not exceed the family's income in
the year preceding the sabbatical year." This stipulation,
whose obvious source is de Hartog, shows that he sought every
possible way to withhold any money from avreichim,
even though the amounts are relatively small and are below
the teachers' salaries.
The letter from the Office of the Ombudsman further states
the Education Ministry must pay guaranteed income stipends to
only the relatively small number of avreichim whose
wives are on sabbatical who actually filed complaints. This
shows the importance of filing an official complaint when
there is an injustice, even when it does not initially appear
that there is much hope of redress.
