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Section 20 of the Hours of Work and Rest Law, states that -
20.
(a) In any working day of six or more hours, work shall cease for rest and refreshment for not less than ¾ of an hour, including one continuous break of not less than half an hour. On the day preceding the weekly rest or a festival, the break shall be for not less than half an hour.
(b) A break under subsection (a) shall not exceed three hours.
(c) During a break under subsection (a) lasting for half an hour or more, an employee may leave his place of work, unless his presence at his place of work is essential to the work process or to the working and use of the equipment and he has been required by his employer to remain at his place of work, and, in such a case, the period of the breaks shall be regarded as part of the working hours.
In a ruling given in March 2012 by the Regional Labor Court of Jerusalem, the Court held that the employer’s duty to ensure that “work shall cease” as set out in Article 20(a) of the Law, includes ensuring reasonable conditions to take advantage of the break time.
As such, in places where workers have to eat during the breaks on staircases or in a warehouse that is not designed to be a dining room, it cannot be said that the employer fulfilled the obligation to ensure that “the work shall cease”.
The court held that simply giving an employee the option to leave the workplace during the break is not enough to fulfill the obligation to create reasonable working conditions. Although Section 20(c) of the Law allows the employee to leave the workplace during a break which lasts a half an hour or more, but this allowance cannot become an obligation, stemming from the employer’s lack to fulfill the duty of ensuring reasonable conditions to take advantage of the break.
The Sick Pay Act does not guarantee an employee who is unable to work his full salary for the days of his absence, but rather provides him with a partial payment.
An employee who is absent from work due to illness will be entitled to receive payment from his employer, subject to the maximum period of eligibility, according to the following payment rates:
| Day of Absence |
Sick Pay |
Payment rate |
| First |
No Pay |
- |
| Second |
Half Sick Pay |
50% of regular pay day |
| Third |
Half Sick Pay |
50% of regular pay day |
| Fourth and onwards |
Full sick pay |
100% of regular pay day |
An employee, who was away due to sickness and would like to receive sick pay from his employer, must provide the employer with proper medical certificates. The employee must notify the employer, within three days, of the illness and the approximate period during which the employee will be unable to return to work, due to the illness.
So you’ve devotedly worked at the same workplace for the last several months but your employer decided to downsize and let you go. Are you entitled to receive severance pay? Similarly, you’ve worked at the same workplace and were highly appreciated, but decided to resign. Will you receive compensation? In what circumstances will an employee be entitled to receive severance pay and how will it be calculated?
Severance Pay is compensation money an employee receives upon getting fired. It is one of the worker’s rights protected by Israeli law, though not every employee is entitled to it. The severance pay is intended to compensate for the loss of a source of income. The amount of compensation to be paid depends on gross basic salary and time of employment.
In principle, an employee who has worked for one consecutive year before getting fired is entitled to receive severance pay. However, the law also takes into account situations where the employee has not completed a full year of employment for various reasons, and will still receive severance pay. Among the reasons for termination which do not preclude eligibility for job severance pay are: military reserve service, annual leave, days of mourning, an accident or illness, strike, etc.
In some cases, if the employee decides to resign, the resignation will be considered a dismissal, and that employee will still be entitled to compensation: Resignation due to stay at a home for battered women, resignation due to relocation (such as moving with a spouse after getting married), resignation due to poor health condition, and resignation of a female employee within 9 months of giving birth in order to take care of the child.
Additionally, an employee who has resigned due to deterioration of his working conditions or due to other work-related circumstances may be entitled to severance pay compensation. It should be noted that there is no clear definition of when resignation due to working condition deterioration will merit severance pay. This is something to be determined by the Israeli Labor Court, based on the specific merits of the case.
In some circumstances, the Israeli Labor Court may deny severance pay or will approve a reduced compensation, if the employee has violated the special employer-employee trust relationship, such as by embezzlement or theft from the employer.
An employer must reimburse the employee for travel expenses incurred to get to work, up to the maximum reimbursement amount stipulated by law. The reimbursement is to be paid on the same date the salary is paid. Currently, the maximum reimbursement amount for travel expenses is 24.40 NIS per day.
The employer must also reimburse the employee for any travel expenses incurred for any travel that is required to perform the worker’s duty or carry out the work.
The employer may reimburse the employee for travel expenses to work in one of two ways:
1. Reimbursement determined by the rate of a public transportation bus fare from the employee’s place of residence to the place of work, multiplied by the number of days actually worked. An employee will not be eligible for reimbursement on days of missed work (such as vacation or illness).
2. Reimbursement for the purchase of a monthly public transportation bus subscription from the employee’s place of residence to the place of work.
Alternatively, an employer may provide the employee private transportation to work and back home. In this case, the employee will not be eligible to receive reimbursement.
The Israeli employer must give the employee a written notice specifying the employee’s working terms, within 30 days of commencing work.
The notice must include, inter alia, the following matters:
1. Identity of the employer and the employee.
2. Work start date.
3. Work end date (if the employment is for a fixed period).
4. Description of Work.
5. Name of direct supervisor.
6. Worker’s salary and date of payment.
7. Length of the workday or regular work week.
8. Weekly rest day of the employee.
9. Details of the social benefits the employee will be entitled to and the names of the entities to whom the payments will be transferred.
An employer’s failure to deliver such notice to the employee constitutes a criminal offense punishable by a fine.
The law allows an Israeli employer to deduct the following payments from the worker’s salary:
• Contributions which the employee has consented be deducted in writing
• Employees’ Union fees
• Disciplinary fines imposed according to law or a collective agreement
• Employee organization membership fees
• An employee’s debt to the employer according to a written undertaking, provided no more than 25% of the salary is deducted on account of the debt.
The Israeli employer is required by law to provide an employee with a pay slip (pay stub) so that the employee may fully understand the employment terms and ensure that no employment rights have been violated.
The pay slip (pay stub) must clearly provide the following wage component details:
• All payments and deductions from salary
• Number of days and business hours
• Normal hourly wage and overtime wage if applicable
The employer must regularly keep records of the hours worked by the employee using a time clock and clearly state the actual hours worked on the pay slip (pay stub) every month.
A basic rule in Israeli employment law is that an employer may not worsen the employee’s employment conditions without the employee’s express written consent.
Still, many employers do worsen their employees’ work terms and conditions, be it as a result of economic crises, declining revenues or other problems – by reducing the salaries of their employees or increasing the number of hours they must work.
What can an employee whose working conditions were unilaterally worsened do?
Many employees find themselves in a seemingly powerless situation; their terms may have been unilaterally worsened but they are in need of work and therefore continue working.
These employees are protected by the law and may pursue one of two options:
1. Continue working and sue the employer for back wage and wage delay compensation.
2. Resign and receive the status of having been fired.
Israeli labor laws stipulate that an employee who resigned in light of unilateral worsening conditions of employment is entitled to the same benefits of an employee who was fired, including payment of severance pay.
How much time do I have to decide which option to pursue?
Israeli Labour Courts have recognized that employees whose working conditions were worsened needs time to consider whether to quit his job and looking for another job or continue work under the worsened conditions.
As such, the employee whose conditions were worsened has up to eight months to sue the employer for back wage and wage delay compensation or resign and receive the status of having been fired. After that period of time, the employee will be deemed as having given consent to the worsening conditions and not be entitled to these rights.
A worker’s salary must be paid by the employer no later than the 9th day of the month following the work month. When the 9th day of the month falls on a rest day, the employer must pay the salary prior to this date, or else the employer will be obliged to compensate the worker for having delayed the payment of salary.
To deter employers from deviating from this deadline, the Israeli law stipulates that an employer who has delayed payment of salary must compensate the worker at a considerably high rate:
- For a delay in payment of up to one week – the compensation rate is 5%
- For a delay in payment of each additional week or part of it – the compensation rate is 10%
A lawsuit for compensation based on a delayed payment of salary claim must be filed within one year at the Israeli Labour Court.
The Minimum Wage Law regulates a “minimum wage”, which is the lowest wage an employer may pay a worker for labor. A worker’s right to minimum wage cannot be given up, not even in an express written contract. A violation of the Minimum Wage Law is a criminal offense, punishable by imprisonment or a fine.
The Israeli Minimum Wage, as of 1.7.11, is as follows:
Hourly wage: 22.04 NIS
Monthly wage (up to 43 hours per week): 4,100.00 NIS *
Daily wage (5-day work week): 189.23 NIS *
Daily wage (6-day work week): 164.00 NIS*
* Provided that if computed hourly, the wages are not less than the minimum hourly wage.
