Employee rights - Best lawyers

In a period of dynamic and changing labor market, understanding your workers' rights is key to employment stability, economic security, and maintaining your professional dignity. The field of workers' rights is a central part of labor law in Israel, designed to protect workers from exploitation, discrimination, or violation of their conditions, and to ensure fair and dignified employment relations. Knowledge of these rights and understanding of legal rules constitute an essential component for every worker, as they provide the ability to act correctly when needed, and sometimes even secure economic and professional future. In this guide, we will review the main legal branches in the field, detail the rights you are entitled to, present common situations of rights violations, and provide practical tools for action.

This comprehensive information from LawReviews is designed to provide you with a clear and updated legal picture in the field of labor law in Israel.

What is the Labor Law Branch?

Labor law is a broad and complex legal branch that regulates the relationships between workers and employers. Its main purpose is to balance the inherently unequal power relations existing between the parties and to protect the worker, who is considered the weaker party. Israeli law, like many others in the Western world, is based on social principles that recognize the importance of the worker's dignified existence and their right to fair employment conditions. This field is anchored in a long series of laws, regulations, court decisions, extension orders, and collective agreements. A workers' rights attorney is the professional who specializes in these rules and can help you realize your entitled rights.

Among the main fundamental laws are:

• Minimum Wage Law: guarantees every worker a fixed minimum monthly and hourly wage.
• Wage Protection Law: establishes the deadline for wage payment and provides serious sanctions for wage delays.
• Severance Pay Law: regulates entitlement to severance pay in case of dismissal or resignation under certain circumstances (such as worsening conditions).
• Women's Employment Law: protects the rights of working women, especially during pregnancy, childbirth, and parenthood.
• Working Hours and Rest Law: establishes permitted working hours, requires payment for overtime hours, and regulates weekly rest days.
• Annual Leave Law: guarantees every worker accumulation of vacation days and payment for them.

Main Sub-areas in Labor Law and Workers' Rights

The field of workers' rights consists of numerous sub-areas, each focusing on a different aspect of employment relations:

1. Termination of employment relations: This is one of the most complex and sensitive areas. It deals with issues of dismissal, resignation, severance pay, and advance notice. Employment termination must be done according to clear rules, including hearing, full payment of rights, and avoidance of unlawful dismissal. A workers' rights attorney specializes in cases of arbitrary dismissal, discrimination, or dismissal without proper hearing.
2. Employment and benefits: This area deals with wages, benefits, and social rights. It includes issues such as minimum wage, overtime hours, recuperation pay, annual leave, sick days, and pension contributions. Many workers are not aware that they are entitled to social contributions from their first day at work, and that failure to make such contributions is a serious violation by the employer.
3. Sexual harassment and workplace discrimination: The Equal Employment Opportunities Law prohibits discrimination based on gender, age, race, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, parenthood, and more. Furthermore, the Sexual Harassment Prevention Law requires the employer to ensure a safe work environment free from harassment. These areas require special expertise due to their sensitivity and the need to prove discriminatory intent or inappropriate treatment.
4. Claims and dispute resolution: When a conflict arises between worker and employer, one can turn to claim procedures in the labor court. These procedures include filing a claim, presenting evidence, legal representation, and conducting settlement negotiations. A significant portion of claims deal with employment contract violations, non-payment of wages, pension contributions, or unlawful dismissal grounds.

Workers' Rights and Their Violation: Common Cases and What to Do

Your rights as workers are not theoretical, and their violation can cause you significant financial and emotional damage. It's important to be alert to signs of violation of your rights:

• Worsening conditions: Unilateral and substantial changes to employment conditions, such as wage reduction, demotion, forced transfer of workplace, or cancellation of substantial benefits. In such cases, a worker may resign and still be entitled to severance pay.
• Wage delays: Systematic delay in salary payment or incomplete payment. The Wage Protection Law establishes that wages not paid on time entitle the worker to special compensation without need to prove damage.
• Non-contribution of social funds: The employer must contribute funds to pension, continuing education fund, and recuperation pay. Failure to contribute these funds over time can severely damage the worker's economic future.
• Unlawful dismissal: Dismissal without hearing, dismissal on discriminatory grounds (pregnancy, age, illness), or dismissal not in good faith. In such cases, the worker can file a claim for special compensation.

Hearing Procedure Before Dismissal: Your Rights and How It's Conducted

Dismissal of a worker in Israel cannot be done arbitrarily or immediately. In almost all cases, the employer is obligated to conduct a hearing procedure for the worker before making the final decision. The purpose of the hearing is to allow the worker to voice their arguments and try to convince the employer not to dismiss them. The right to hearing is a fundamental right in labor law.

Your rights in the hearing:

• Advance notice: The employer must provide you with an invitation to the hearing a reasonable time in advance (usually several days) so you can prepare.
• Right to accompaniment: You are entitled to request that a person on your behalf be present at the hearing, such as a lawyer, workers' committee representative, or work colleague.
• Right to receive documents: The employer must allow you to review documents and evidence on which they base their intention to dismiss you.
• Right to be heard: You must receive a real opportunity to respond to the employer's claims, present your side, and suggest alternatives to dismissal.
• Decision only after hearing: The employer must seriously consider everything said in the hearing and only then make an informed decision. They cannot come to the hearing with a final decision already made.

What happens if the hearing procedure was not conducted properly?

If the employer does not conduct a hearing according to law, for example by giving too short notice, preventing accompaniment possibility, or making a decision in advance, they may be liable for special compensation to the worker, even if the dismissal itself was justified. In such a case, it's recommended to immediately contact a workers' rights attorney to understand your rights.

Common Claims to Labor Court: Appealing to Judicial Instances

When settlement attempts with the employer are unsuccessful, the next step is filing a claim with the labor court. Here are some examples of common claims and brief explanations:

Claim for Severance Pay

This is a classic claim where a worker argues they were unlawfully dismissed or resigned under circumstances entitling them to compensation (for example, worsening conditions), and the employer refuses to pay them.

Claim for Payment of Social Rights:

This claim includes a demand for payment of rights that were not paid to the worker, such as:

• Recuperation pay: Annual payment due to most workers.
• Annual leave: Payment for unused vacation days at the end of employment relations.
• Pension and continuing education fund contributions: Compensation for years when the employer did not make contributions according to law.
• Overtime hours: Payment for work hours performed beyond the legal quota and not properly compensated.

Claim for Unlawful Dismissal or Discrimination:

These claims are more complex and require proving invalid dismissal grounds, such as dismissal based on age, religion, race, or pregnancy. In such cases, the labor court can award increased compensation.

Defamation Claim

In some cases, hostile employment relations can also reach defamation if the employer publishes false and harmful information about the worker. In such cases too, the labor court has authority to hear and award compensation.

Collective Agreements and Extension Orders: Rights Beyond the Law

While labor laws establish a minimum level of rights, many of you are entitled to additional rights thanks to collective agreements and extension orders. These are agreements signed between worker organizations (such as the Histadrut) and employer organizations in a specific sector, expanding worker rights beyond what's established by law. Extension orders, which gain validity from the Minister of Labor, extend the validity of these agreements also to workers and employers who were not party to the agreement, thereby improving employment conditions for entire sectors.

Common examples of rights arising from extension orders:

• Recuperation pay: In many sectors, the extension order establishes a higher number of recuperation days than established by law.
• Continuing education fund: In certain sectors, contributions to continuing education fund are mandatory by virtue of extension order, even if the worker is not employed in such a sector.
• Wage supplements: Extension orders often establish wage supplements or seniority supplements for workers, beyond the base salary.

Most workers have no way to know which extension orders they are subject to, so it's important in cases of conflict or employment termination to consult with a labor law attorney to ensure all your rights, including those arising from orders and agreements, are paid in full.

Special Workers: Freelancers, Contractors, and Foreign Workers

The protection provided by labor law is not uniform for all workers. There are types of workers whose rights are different or partial:

• Contractor workers: These workers are employed by a manpower company or contractor, but their work is performed at an actual employer. In this situation, both the manpower contractor and the actual employer are liable for the worker's rights. If a contractor worker was employed for more than 9 months at the same actual employer, they may demand to be absorbed as a regular employee of the actual employer.
• Foreign workers: Foreign workers are entitled to the same basic rights as Israeli workers, including minimum wage, social rights, and more. However, there are dedicated laws that protect them, especially in care and agriculture sectors, ensuring they are not exploited.
• Freelancers (self-employed): According to law, self-employed are not considered workers and therefore are not entitled to rights due to salaried workers (such as compensation, annual leave, and recuperation). However, it's important to know that the labor court can determine that employee-employer relations existed in practice, even if a freelancer contract was signed, if the relationship system meets various criteria established in case law, such as the business integration test.

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