A few weeks after taking office, the new commissioner of wages, Efi Malkin , sent a firm letter to the workers' committee and the IAI management, in which he announced his intention to promote a collective hearing against the company's employees due to allegations of salary irregularities for thousands of employees. Among other things, promoting employees from various departments to the ranks of vice presidents and CEOs so that they will receive a pampering personal contract and a higher salary.
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These claims first surfaced in 2019, and since then the Treasury has repeatedly given TAI extensions, which were intended to allow the Aerospace Industry to reach a comprehensive settlement with the committee and to move to a modern wage model that would allow competition for hiring employees against the high-tech. A, including at least five who received more than $400,000 in 2022. Not only a hearing awaits them, the wage commissioner warned, but also a demand to return large sums from thousands of workers, which he claims were illegally given.
Hi-tech plus
This hot issue, at the center of which is insufficient compensation, which harms the ability to "hunt" the high-quality high-tech refugees who are looking for work, came to the attention of Boaz Levy , CEO of the Air Industry, who has been in his position since 2022, and manages to bring out the same source of inspiration that accompanied him until the moment when I mentioned the letter .
"The aerospace industry is high-tech of the first order," he states emphatically, so that those who did not receive the message, that the defense industries have become the cutting edge of technology and driving the economy, will now understand. "We have the biggest experts in the space and missile market, experts who would earn huge salaries in the civilian market."
Director General of Aviation Industry Boaz Levy, Avigdor Lieberman and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Aviation Industry Amir Peretz (Photo: IAI)"Because we are a government company, subordinate to the wage commissioner, he has the right to demand the return of funds, but we, the management, together with the workers' committee, claim that not only is there no problem here, there is interference in our wage considerations. Efi's statement is wrong. You cannot come and say For us, deal with the peak of high-tech, hire the best employees, and pay them low wages."
"The salary of the workers at the TA is low," he warms up, "and the load is great and it's time to deal with it once and for all. We sit down with the Treasury, with the Ministry of Defense and explain to them the complexity of the matter and hope that it will be resolved."
IAA employees receive generous bonuses. In May, NIS 61 million in grants were distributed to employees. In December alone, they received NIS 90 million. Is that not enough?
"We pay the employees for their work according to a salary key and the collective agreement. We are a profitable company that transfers a dividend to the state coffers and we are proud of that."
David Amsalem, the minister in charge of the Companies Authority, left the last dividend of NIS 20 million with him for the time being. He does not agree to transfer them to the state treasury.
"There is the Minister of Defense and Minister Amsalem, and they are the ones who come to the decisions. The company announced a dividend. In addition, there is another layer. It is customary to give bonuses from the company's profits. In the years that TAA did not make a profit, they were not distributed, so when there are profits, even to people who worked hard To reach them, it comes, from the production workers to the senior managers. I understand the treasury's games, but you have to take into account that there is a goal-oriented and growing business here, and when you want the best, you have to pay. Working for national security worked for my generation. It doesn't work on the new generation."
You need to work on your somewhat outdated image. At Hitech they realized a long time ago that the face of the company is an important part of brand marketing.
"This is true for every field, not just for high-tech. IAA invented the UAV, the world of satellites, naval missiles, and it has seen ups and downs over the years. I think the breaking point in its image was the government's decision to cancel the Halabya project. The manpower status was reduced by One in half. That's when the start-up Nation started and the engineers who developed the next-generation fighter jet were ejected and started producing small products in the high-tech market. In other words, we contributed quite a bit to making Israel a high-tech powerhouse.
"As a government industry, we will not be able to compete with private high-tech, but we give good salaries, technological challenges and a home to the employees. There is a strong element of family here, with people who have been working for 40 years in the same workplace. And Zionism is not a dirty word, when building complex projects for the benefit of the state's security and in the end Today, you can't tell about them at home. In Corona, by the way, not a single employee has been fired."
Why do you need to hire 15 thousand workers, when everything is biased towards technology?
"A company that sells 5 billion dollars a year needs 15,000 employees. We provide work to 50,000 households, also in the second and third circles."
At the Treasury, they think you can and must become more efficient.
"I have nowhere to cut. We are in a big campaign to recruit more workers. Don't forget that we have a backlog of orders of 17 billion dollars for the next few years."
The Ministry of Defense, which is both your regulator and a major customer, owes you a billion shekels. Let's just say that this combination of regulator, customer and debtor is problematic no matter where you look at it.
"The Ministry of Defense also owes Elbit and Rafael. We look at this debt as the safest debt in the world. I know that I will receive it soon and that it is a priority of the Ministry of Defense."
Your salary was published as part of the company's salary publications, 370 thousand dollars per year, a relatively low salary compared to your counterpart in the private market. You could make a lot of money in citizenship.
"I have been working at TA for over 30 years and a large part of my motivation is the mission. I belong to the generation that believes that security should be brought to the State of Israel. It doesn't exist only for me, but for many other employees. I have five more years in office, and when they are over, I will go do something else good for the State of Israel."
Scandal or festival?
In the last year, when high-tech fell into a global crisis, and experienced a flight of investors under the influence of the legal reform, and while waves of layoffs rocked the pleasure ship of "Nadir Hackerman" and his hubris-stricken friends, from the "Wonderful Country" sketch series, the defense industries opened burners and gave a meteoric leap forward, as they pump For the content of high-tech refugees from the world a reality, who were looking for job security and not just big money.
And the Israel Aerospace Industries, in its full name, or IAA, for short, has a great deal to offer high-tech professionals looking for professional challenges. The most profitable government company in Israel develops and manufactures aviation products, on land and at sea, space systems, defense and military systems, cyber and electronic products, among others The Ofek satellites, Amos, radars, the Bereshit spacecraft, the Griffin laser bomb, stray weapons, Barak 8, and twin-engine jet planes and fighter planes. Its main facility is located near Ben-Gurion Airport, and its factories are scattered in eight other settlements throughout the country.
Levy explains that those who enter TAA know that they will not wade in a pool of bullets, but at most will step on a pile of empty pods that someone forgot in the warehouse. He does not promise streams of fresh ramen soup from the taps, but class trips and activities for Purim. Everything, he says, is focused, specific and divided according to Gilim, because with all the good will, it is difficult to organize one party for 15 thousand employees together.
With all due respect to the impressive modesty, the company's 70th celebrations, which were held not long ago, cost millions, they were held with the participation of Noa Kirel, Rita, Shlomi Shabat, Itai Levy, Berry Sakharof, Miri Mesika and Eili Butner, under the brilliant direction of Erez Tal and Bar Refaeli, with the words Others: not really Komzitz in the sea or makeshift karaoke with an amplifier. For those who wonder how the logistics were arranged there, we will say that there were a total of three rounds of all this goodness, in Yarkon Park. When the workers go on their annual vacation, which this time will be abroad, it will be by air train, which would not embarrass a small country.
Apart from Levy and his management, the one who wins this diverse and attractive activity, and takes care of a nice reward, is Yair Katz, the chairman of the workers' committee and the son of the current minister of tourism, and the chairman of the committee in the past Haim Katz, who is considered one of the most powerful committee heads in the economy, one who knows how to show the ease of his muscular arm when needed.
"I think a strong committee is healthy for society," says Levy. "He represents the employees but sees the good of the company. Therefore, in most cases we have common interests and sometimes disagreements. When there is mutual trust, agreement and understanding. My relationship with Yair is excellent."
Is there no dispute about the protest against the legal reform? Are TEA employees allowed to protest against it?
"There are no demonstrations in TAA. Our employees do not go out to demonstrate together. Everyone leaves political opinions outside the fence."
Let's not get carried away. Your committee is identified with the Likud. It is enough to recall the mass participation for the party and the organized transportation to the primaries.
"The shuttles are an event from the past. There was an auditor's report and we implemented it. Today's society is apolitical. Whoever wants to demonstrate after work, or take half a day off for that, is free to do what he believes in. What is more important, that is right for this point in time, and I I don't know how to predict the future, there is no effect of the legal revolution or the protest on us. We work in a traditional industry, with rising needs, as evidenced by our impressive backlog of orders."
half child
Levy, 62, married and father of two, graduated in aeronautics and space engineering, was already involved in missiles during his service in the Air Force. As a young engineer he became involved in the Arrow project which was then in its infancy, at a time when the world did not know how to intercept missiles. Since they had no one to learn from, they sat down and wrote the textbook of "How to intercept a missile with a missile", by themselves. Over time, he moved up the Arrow chain of command until he was appointed to head the project.
"I led Arrow 3 from the concept stage to the product. On a professional level, I am very proud. Missile engineers are tested by going down to the smallest details, when a small mistake can lead to failure and the work is with technologies that were ahead of their time. Think of the wonder of selling a system, which is like your child, to a foreign country , to protect its citizens."
The sale of the Arrow 3 system to Germany, for the fantastic sum of 3.4 billion dollars, was the closing of a circle for the man who accompanied it from its development to its sale. A kind of excitement that is hard to describe in words. When I ask if they are already working on Arrow 5, he smiles.
The 'Hats 3' system (photo: Ministry of Defense spokesperson)"In our world, there is no state of relaxation. On the one hand, we maintain the systems that are in use by the customers, and on the other hand, we try to be at least one step ahead of the customers and predict where the threats will develop from. We must never be in a gap. If Arrow 3 is in use in the IDF, already These days money is being invested in the development of Arrow 5 which will respond to the threats that will come. We have been operating this way for three decades and are able to predict the future technological development and the needs."
How will "Arrow 5" differ from "Arrow 3"?
"I can't share a large part of the things, but in the world we are in today, the next wars will be wider and will not be conducted on the front line, but will combine front and rear, military and civilian. The solution we are trying to bring is versatile in the face of the scenarios. No one can say how The next war will be seen, but it is clear that the systems will be more flexible.
"One of the abilities is forecasting. We look at the world from space, the air, the sea and the land, with tools that are some autonomous and some not, that give the decision makers the ability to accept them optimally. The world of drones and planes should be linked to the communication satellites, the ground and other factors, which will allow conduct the campaign in an intelligent way.
"We are in the air, in space and at sea, and now we have firmly entered the land world and we are leading the future of the land army in the context of autonomous capabilities. When there is a conflict, it is possible to bring to the front a variety of tools, drones, drones, and robots, which will travel on land to seize the territory, without Involvement of flesh and blood soldiers, they will control them from afar. The soldiers will be protected and will not pull the trigger like before, but will be given a set of instructions."
Is the era of the combat soldier over?
"It's not over, but its share will be significantly reduced. We prefer to send technological capabilities that will know how to make decisions in the field and preserve human life."
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