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Israel
The Civil Service
As of late 1988, government employees were recruited through
a merit system, with appointment, promotion, transfer, termination,
training, discipline, and conditions of employment regulated by
law. They were prohibited, especially in the senior grades, from
engaging in partisan politics by the Civil Service (Restriction
of Party Activities and Fund-Raising) Law of 1959. As of 1988,
there were approximately 100,000 government employees, excluding
the Israel Police, teachers (who were technically municipal employees),
civilian workers in the defense establishment, and employees of
the State Employment Service and the autonomous Israel Broadcasting
Authority.
The civil service was headed by a commissioner appointed by the
cabinet and directly responsible to the minister of finance. The
commissioner, who like other senior government officials carried
the rank of director general, had broad responsibility for the
examination, recruitment, appointment, training, and discipline
of civil service personnel. In practice, however, except in the
senior grades, these matters were left to the discretion of the
various ministries. The commissioner was also chairman of the
Civil Service Board, consisting of three directors general representing
government ministries and three members representing the public.
The purpose of the board was to administer the civil service pension
system. In addition, the office of the commissioner directed the
operation of the Central School of Administration in Jerusalem
and furnished administrative services to the Civil Service Disciplinary
Court. Civil servants were automatically members of the Civil
Servants' Union--a practice that has been in effect since 1949
when the union became part of the General Federation of Laborers
in the Land of Israel (HaHistadrut HaKlalit shel HaOvdim B'Eretz
Yisrael, known as Histadrut--literally, organization). Any basic
changes in the conditions of government employment must have the
concurrence of the union. The mandatory retirement age for civil
service workers was sixty-five, and pensions ranged from 20 to
70 percent of terminal salary, depending on length of service.
Data as of December 1988
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