Participants in a workshop organized by the Solidarity Center for Workers’ Rights Around the World – Palestine Branch, the General Federation of Palestinian Trade Unions, and the Journalists Syndicate recommended the need to strengthen cooperation between the media, labor and trade union sectors, in order to form a public opinion pressing for the application of minimum wages in various industrial and labor establishments.

The preparer of the plan for the minimum wage, Ibrahim Rabaya, presented during the workshop held in Al-Bireh today, Thursday, an overview of the course of the national strategic media plan to support the implementation of the minimum wage, which was launched by the Workers Union in cooperation with the Journalists Syndicate and the Solidarity Center 2023-2026.

He noted that the plan is based on major directions that ensure the involvement of all societal, official and sectoral sectors, with the aim of applying minimum wages in various establishments in Palestine, most of which are classified as small and operate away from official supervision.

Rabaya indicated that an opinion poll was carried out to obtain data regarding the labor situation in Palestine, noting that the questionnaire showed that 51% of working women earn less than the minimum wage, some of which do not exceed 300 shekels per month.

He pointed out that setting the minimum wage at 1,880 shekels, which came after an agreement between the three production parties, led to an increase in the number of workers who now earn less than the minimum wage.

For her part, the director of the Solidarity Center - Palestine Branch, Abla Masrouji, stressed the need for concerted efforts between civil society institutions, trade unions and the media, to form a pressing public opinion that pushes towards the implementation of the minimum wage law, and securing social protection for many groups of workers, as well as getting out of diagnosing the current reality. Towards developing solutions leading to the implementation of this law.

For his part, the representative of the General Federation of Palestinian Trade Unions Khaled Abdel-Hadi said, "Although the current minimum wage figure does not represent the aspirations of the labor movement, it does represent a limited achievement in light of the economic reality that Palestine is going through," noting that the federation has approved 56 agreements. With medium economic facilities, I pledged to implement it.

He pointed out that the agreement between the three production parties was not only related to the implementation of what was stated in the financial clause, but rather stresses the need to review the minimum wage, especially with the annual price hikes that Palestine and the world witness, indicating the need for the cost of living index to take into account a group of factors. The main commodities: such as food, transportation, health and education, and not according to the currently applied criterion, which includes a group of commodities that are considered luxuries in the life of the Palestinian individual.

For his part, the coordinator of the Economic Journalists Network, Ayham Abu Ghosh, said that the Journalists Syndicate and the network are ready to make any campaign aimed at implementing this law a success, pointing to the importance of providing a database for journalists that enables them to produce specialized media materials on this subject.

Abu Ghosh spoke about the importance of humanizing the figure, analyzing it, and its reflection on the reality of citizens, calling for the need to promote the values of accountability and accountability by media institutions.