A. School vacation
As it stands now, Israeli school children get too much uncoordinated vacation—school off while the business world (and parents) are open. The school year is contractually determined with the teachers’ unions. If all is well, the teachers decide to show up on the first day instead of striking, school opens on 1 September and ends (elementary school) on 30 June.
Assuming they everyone is in their place for the year, the kids are off in addition to the haggim (High Holidays, Sukkot, Pesach and Shavuot), the arvei and issurei hag (the day before and after the holiday/hag), all of Hanukah, three days of Purim (Tannit Esther, Purim day and Shushan Purim), the week before Pesach, Lag B’Omer (since most kids have stayed up the night before and are in no condition to attend anyway) and the state (mandated) holidays—Memorial Day (half a day), Independence Day, election day (since the schools are used). Surprisingly, the list doesn’t include Yom Yerushalayim [Jerusalem Day commemorating the recapturing of Jerusalem in the 1967 Six Day War]. In total, schools, in addition to the two month summer vacation, are closed for additional 18 days (38 if you also include the actual days of hag and hol ha’moed), for a total of nearly three months. While it may be a boon for the different “vacation activity providers”, it wreaks havoc for parents and their pocketbooks.
A couple of years ago, then Chair of the Knesset Education Committee, Michael Melichor sought to reduce the number of school vacation days, only to have it shot down by the teachers’ unions.
This year, the Knesset sought to shorten the summer vacation. The unions objected. They went so far as to demand that teachers, including principals boycott summer meetings.
I realize that teachers’ salaries are (too) low, the formal school day is too short, from 8:00 (or so) until 13:00 and the week long (Sunday through Friday). That, the education of your child heavily dependant on parental involvement, supplementing the school day by paying for extra classes in the afternoon (either dropped from the regular school day or as enrichment), paying for “extras” like computers, acting as school aides and setting a tone for excellence. The lack of active parental means poor educational opportunities for the students/children. In other words, better off neighborhoods/parents make better schools.
And, this is in the country of “the people of the book.” Somehow, Israel, its governments (national and municipal) has made education a low priority.
B. Consumer Rights
I have always been disappointed and amazed how impossible it is to get your money back—cash or credit card credit—after returning an item to the store. If they agree to take back their merchandise, they expect you to be satisfied with a store credit (which should be used within a month or two). In Israel, the customer can't be considered to be right.
This was reinforced by an item I noticed in the “Business in Brief” section in the English The Marker of 18 May 2010, “Manufacturers horrified at money-back bill”:
“Many people will come to the stores not in order to buy but in order to entertain themselves by buying and returning products,” said Uriel Lynn, the president of the Israeli Chambers of Commerce, yesterday. … “Instead of educating the consumer to act seriously, they will be taught to act irresponsibly,” he added. He called the bill “superfluous and harmful,” and said it would upset the balance of proper commercial relations—just because the consumer changed their mind.Wow, forcing stores to return a customers money because they changed their mind or didn’t like the gift someone bought them, instead of being allowed to keep their money, is equivalent to inculcating irresponsible behavior and will destroy the natural order of doing business. That most other countries in the world, in name of customer relations actually return people’s money and they continue to attract new costumers seems to be beyond belief for Israeli businesspeople and its spokesperson Uriel Lynn.
What can one expect from the person, when he was a member of Knesset (Likud), who proposed separating the elections of the Prime Minister and the Knesset itself. It was an abject failure and was finally rescinded after two election cycles and the country still experiences its aftershocks today with weak major parties and unwieldy coalition governments.
Five years after the Knesset passed a law requiring stores to refund money to customers who returned purchases, instead of just giving store credits or exchanges, the ministry (Industry, Trade and Labor) finally created the regulations needed to enforce it. Luckily, the Knesset Economic Affairs Committee continued to continued to forge ahead with the legislation stipulating that the store must return the money in the same manner the customer paid: cash for cash or checks, and cancellation of credit card charges. But it gave the industry, trade and labor minister the authority to determine which products and services could be canceled or returned for monetary refunds.
Unfortunately, the legislation has a number of holes or “catches” including:
- Every return of a product or cancellation of a service will cost the consumer 5% of the value of the transaction, or NIS 100, whichever is less. In some cases, such as electrical and electronic items, the store can charge a 10% cancellation fee if the original packaging has been opened.
- Certain items, however, are excluded - for example, furniture that is installed in the customer's home, or merchandise produced especially for the customer. Food, drugs and nutritional supplements are also not included.
Great news. Now we’ll see how it trickles down to the actual store level.
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