Company Law

The purpose of Labour Law is to establish procedures and rules in all matters concerning work and employment relationships, and to protect the workers’ rights. It also determines the rights and obligations of both parties in a contract of employment. Another area of ​lLabour law concerns the relationship between trade unions and employers’ organizations.

The strange thing is that although labour law concerns every employee in the country, few people are familiar with their legal rights regarding employment contracts, sick days, vacation, maternity, discrimination, dismissal and other rights.

There is a great lack of public information on this subject in Israel.

Clear rules exist to protect both employees and employers. Several trade unions operate in various fields; their purpose is to protect the rights of all their members. Most industries and private and public businesses, have liability insurance to protect themselves and their employees.

• Responsibility of employers
  Among all areas of responsibility, the employer’s one is the most common and important. There are clear and explicit laws on employer-employee relations, whether in favor of the employee or employer. The employer has full control over the place, time and the way the employee works, so that the employee needs some protection.
• Trade Union
  A trade union is an organization of workers who have come together and their purpose is to ensure the preservation of their safety, material and moral rights at work. The union helps each worker when a problem arises. A trade union representing workers at any convention is responsible for the signature of the employees to whom the agreement applies.
• Labour Court
  The Labour Court handles problems concerning labor and employer-employee relations, employment contracts, employee and employer’s rights, remuneration, work permits, working conditions, pension terms, criminal offenses at work and more.
• Contracts
  Contracts are one of the most important things in all areas such as labor, local or international trade, business, insurance, within the family and many others. Each contract must state its running time and once signed one cannot cancel it.
• Dismissal
  Dismissal laws insure the severance pay to which employees are entitled according to the number of years they worked. It does not matter if the employer dismisses the employee or if the employee resigns on his own initiative for personal or other reasons, the employee is entitled to the compensation he deserves. The calculation of the amount of compensation depends on the last salary multiplied by the years of service in the job in question.
• Retirement
  By law, anyone living and working in the country is entitled to a pension upon reaching a certain age, 62 for women and 67 for men in Israel. The mandatory retirement age is 67 for women and men. Usually, an employee saves money for his pension via an insurance he chooses himself, but his employer is legally obliged to add to its pays a certain monthly sum for his pension based on his salary. The employee on his side also pays a certain amount via his monthly pay. These two amounts together enable the employee to receive a monthly sum on retirement.
• Replenishment
  By law, anyone working in the country is entitled to receive a replenishment once a year according to seniority. This replenishment is a sum of money received once a year, determined by a certain number of days depending of the seniority in one place. In Israel, it is 371 shekels per day according to the seniority table, for example for 3 years seniority it will be 6 days: 6 x 371 = 2226 shekels, for 11 years seniority it will be eight days: 8 x 371 = 2968 shekels.
• Sexual harassment at work
  There are laws against sexual harassment in workplaces. Harassment includes extortion in order to perform a sexual act, repeated sexual propositions, humiliation and degradation of an employee due to his gender or sexual orientation, indecent assault, exploitation of dependence, any recurring reference to the sexuality of a person and more. All these are criminal offenses that can end in civil and criminal court.
• Wage Withholding
  Wage protection clause in the labor law is there to protect the employee who does not receive any salary or not on time. By law, the employer has to pay the wages until the ninth of each month. If not by that date, the employer must compensate the employee; the amount of compensation depends on the length of the delay.
• Workplace Pregnancy
  There is a law to protect women at work during pregnancy. It is unlawful to dismiss an employee because of pregnancy, childbirth or due to pregnancy-related absences. Employers should not discriminate among their employees for reasons of pregnancy, infertility treatment, race or gender. Maternity leave is 14 weeks, but if the woman has worked for a year before the birth of her maternity leave may be 28 weeks but will not receive maternity benefits for 14 weeks.
• Worsening working conditions
  The worsening working conditions including wage reduction, demotion to a lower paid job, humiliation on the part of the vis-à-vis the employee’s employer, team changes or extension, withholding of wages, reduced working hours and more.
• Women’s rights
  Considering that Israeli society is patriarchal so you have rights for women, whether they work or not. The rights of women include working conditions and equal pay with men for equal work, the right to elect and be elected to any office, the right to have children when they want, sick leave due to illness of their child, etc. The rights for pregnant women are explained in the section “pregnancy at work”.
• Employee Rights
  Anyone working in Israel have rights when on his work as work hours, overtime, vacation, sick leave, wages, working conditions and more. The responsibility to protect these rights rests with the employers and all rights are listed in the employment contract.
• Employment contract
  This is the most important document for every employee, which will set all its rights and duties as those of his employer. The contract includes not only the details of both parties but also the conditions and hours of work, travel, salaries, benefits, holidays and other as well as details of work for the employee. It is therefore vital to carefully check the contract, if possible with the assistance of a lawyer before signing it.
• Foreign workers
  Whether foreign or migrant workers, they also have rights in the country, such as normal working conditions, health rights, for their children and others. Their employers are responsible for paying taxes and the preservation of their conditions of work and life. The problem is that there are many illegal foreign workers, making it almost impossible to verify what happens to them and how they live.
• Bankruptcy
  When a company is in debt and unable to pay them it is declared bankrupt. This procedure determines if the debtor truly cannot pay its debts, after proving that he does not have the means to do so. During that process all the debtor’s goods are recorded and then divided in an orderly way among those to whom he owes money.
• Business Registration
  The objective of granting license to a company to ensure that it does not harm the environment, is not a danger to the public, it ensures the safety of its employees and visitors and for the design and / or construction is done according to law and the fight against fire services.