West Bank Palestinians strike over social security law

RAMALLAH (AA) – Palestinians staged a partial strike in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Tuesday to protest a controversial social security law.

Shops and businesses shut in the cities of Ramallah and Nablus as part of the strike, according to an Anadolu Agency reporter in the area.

Tuesday is the first day in compulsory registration set by the Ramallah-based government for companies to join the Social Security Corporation (SSC).

The compulsory membership targets institutions that have more than 200 employees, with the rest to be sequentially registered by 2020.

More than 500 firms and NGOs have announced plans to join the strike, called by the Unified Movement to Drop the Social Security Law, an NGO.

Sit-ins are also planned in the cities of Ramallah and al-Bireh as part of the protest.

Since the end of September, the law has been faced by protests from the private sector institutions and employers, who reject more than 27 items for being "unfair to both the employees and employers".

The legislation calls for deducting 7.2 percent of private-sector employees’ monthly salaries for a social-security fund (which employers would also be expected to pay into) and setting the national retirement age -- for both men and women -- at 60 years.