Palestine Economy Portal 

Translated by Abdel Hakim Odeh 

Dr. Mohammed Shtayyeh, President of the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction "PECDAR" received on March 3, 2016 the delegation of the International Labor Organization "ILO".

The meeting, which was held at PECDAR Headquarters, was attended by Frank Hageman, Deputy Regional Director, Kari Tapiola, Director of the Decent Work Technical Support Team for Arab Countries, and Cartrean Andat, Special Advisor to the Director General, who is specialized in the ILO’s legal standards.

Dr. Shtayyeh discussed with the ILO delegation the Palestinian political situation in general, expressing his support to the French Peace Initiative, which should be based on international law and legitimacy, and should result in a shift from bilateral to multilateral talks.

He also briefed the delegation on the latest developments concerning the Reconciliation currently underway, and expressed the Palestinian Leadership’s determination to accomplish the reconciliation in accordance with the general national standards.

The meeting also discussed the reality of and latest developments in the Palestinian economic situation, which suffers from decline and weakness due to several factors, mainly the Israeli Occupation and its policies that aim at destroying it and imposing restrictions on it.  Other factors include the decline in the flow of the donor funds, which led to a great deficit in the Palestinian budget.

Shtayyeh also discussed with the Delegation the issue of the Palestinian workers in Israel, their compensations and the deductions made from their salaries, which are dues to the Palestinian Authority that it has not yet received. He asked the ILO Delegation to prepare a technical report regarding these dues and compensations.

It is worth mentioning that there are more than 110,000 Palestinian workers in Israel who work in various sectors.

The ILO Delegation expressed its readiness to collect and assess the information concerning the conditions of the workers in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

At the end of the meeting, the ILO Delegation handed Dr. Shtayyeh its annual report on the situation of the workers in the Occupied Arab Territories, which will be discussed within the International Labor Conference to be held next June.