In Israel, there is no specific legal definition and/or legal distinction between blue-collar and white-collar workers. However, “workers performing physical work” are entitled to breaks of not less than 45 minutes in any working day of six hours or more. In “white-collar jobs” or jobs that do not require physical work, there is a general exemption from the obligation to give a break; however, it is customary to provide a half-an-hour break per day.

Israeli law distinguishes between different categories of employees: indefinite period of employment vs temporary employees, hourly vs monthly employees, etc.

Blue-collar employees are often subject to collective bargaining agreements.

Are Employment Contracts Mandatory in Israel?

In Israel, there is no legal requirement to execute a written employment agreement but rather to provide the employee with a written notice of employment terms, no later than 30 days from the employment commencement date, which shall detail some specific terms of employment, such as:

• name, address and identification number of the party;
• employment commencement date and term (indefinite or fixed);
• employee’s position and the identity of their supervisor;
• salary and benefits;
• employee’s regular work hours and primary rest day; and
• pension arrangement and contribution rates to the pension arrangement.

Fixed Term vs Indefinite Term Contracts of Employment

An employer who is a party to a fixed term employment agreement and terminates the employment relations before the end of the fixed term might be obliged to pay the other party monetary compensation due to the violation of the agreement. On the other hand, an employment agreement for an unlimited term may be terminated by either party by giving prior written notice to the other party, as required according to law.

Length of a Working Day and Week

In Israel, a regular working day in a five-day week shall not exceed 8.6 hours (except for one shortened day per each week, which shall not exceed 7.6 hours), a working week shall not exceed 42 hours and respectively, a working month shall be based on 182 working hours per month.

Maximum Overtime

The maximum overtime authorised beyond said hours is up to 16 additional hours per week whether the employee works a five-day or six-day week, with a maximum of 12 working hours net per day.

Compensation for Overtime Work

The compensation for overtime hours is at least 125% of the ordinary wage for the first two overtime hours on any day and at least 150% for all subsequent overtime hours.

It is common for employers to pay a global monthly compensation for overtime hours.

According to case law, the “Global Compensation for Overtime Hours” has to reflect the actual overtime performed or at least the average overtime performed and should be properly and separately reflected in the monthly payslips.

Global pay is paid whether the employee works the entire average overtime hours for which the overtime pay is paid or not.

Flexible Arrangements

Employees may not waive their mandatory entitlements, and an agreement providing overtime payments that are less than as provided by law is not enforceable. However, in certain cases (although not many), case law has approved an arrangement of a flexible working day according to an agreed upon weekly/monthly scope of working hours (meaning, an agreement according to which an employee will have to complete an agreed upon weekly/monthly number of working hours regardless of the daily hours of work). The enforceability of a flexible working arrangement should be examined on a case-by-case basis, and in the event the parties agreed, in good faith, to adopt such an arrangement, it may be interpreted as a valid arrangement as long as the agreement in this respect is not meant to deprive the employee of the provisions of the protective laws and provided that it meets certain criteria including but not limited to the employee’s consent.

In this respect, there are no specific terms for part-time contracts.

The minimum monthly wage is equal to ILS5,880.02 per month and ILS32.30 per hour.

Israel has no legal requirement to grant a 13th-month salary or bonuses. However, to the extent relevant, general collective bargaining agreements may impose other mandatory payments, such as additional compensation for working noon/evening/night shifts. In the private sector, there is no government intervention in salary increase either; however, certain rights are mandatorily calculated upon tenure in a workplace, such as recreation payments and vacation entitlement.

Vacation and Vacation Pay

Pursuant to the applicable legislation, an employee is entitled to a minimum statutory amount of vacation days per each year of employment, which depends on the employee’s tenure in the workplace. Employees must be paid their regular salary for those vacation days.

Parental Leave (Former Terminology Was “Maternity Leave”)

The law requires employers to give a female employee who has been working at least 12 months for the same employer or at the same workplace prior to the beginning of the parenting leave, 26 weeks of parental leave, and for an employee who has worked less than 12 months – 15-weeks of parental leave. The employer is strictly prohibited from employing such employees during the parental leave. A male employee may also be entitled to such parental leave, partially (in case the mother waives her right) or entirely (if the father is one of two fathers), depending on certain circumstances. The father may also utilise part of such parental leave, subject to certain terms, and in addition, he may be absent from work for up to a further seven days by using his vacation and sick leave in the event of the birth of his child.

The legislation includes special provisions relating to emergency situations such as hospitalisation of the mother and/or the newborn or the birth of more than one child that may entitle the employee to extended parental leave, etc.

Parental Leave Pay

Whether the parental leave is 15 or 26 weeks, as mentioned above, only a partial period of 8–15 weeks entitles with payment, depending on the period of payments made by the employee to the national insurance prior to the date of birth), during which, the National Social Security pays the entitled employee an allowance designed to compensate her for the loss of wage or income during the time she is not working due to the pregnancy and/or the birth.

However, women are entitled to extend their parental leave following the minimum parental leave period, with no pay (unpaid leave of absence), subject to a minimum tenure at the same workplace.

The applicable law stipulates that an absence from work because of parental leave, under the provisions of the law, shall not affect the employee’s rights that depend on tenure with the employer. The employer is also required to continue to make social contributions to both the pension and provident fund for the period in which a maternity allowance was paid by the National Social Security (subject to a minimum tenure prior to the date of birth and to payment of employee’s contributions in parallel), all at rates, and according to the wage as if the employee continued to work during said period.

Sick Leave

The entitlement period for sick pay shall not exceed a cumulative period of 1.5 days for each full month of employment but no more than 90 days in all, less any period in respect of which the employee received sick pay.

An employee absent from work in consequence of sickness shall receive, subject to said maximum period of entitlement and by submitting a doctor’s certificate:

• as of the 4th day of said absence: 100% of the wage the employee would have been entitled to receive during such period had s/he continued to work;
• in respect of the 2nd and 3rd day of said absence as aforesaid: 50% of the wage the employee would have been entitled to receive during such period had s/he continued to work; and
• in respect of the 1st day of absence: no payment.

Bereavement Leave

An employee working at the same workplace for a period of at least three months is entitled to bereavement leave of up to seven days in the event of the death of a first-degree family member (ie, parents, children, spouse and siblings). The employer is required to pay the employee his/her regular wage when absent due to bereavement leave.

Military Leave

An employee called up for reserve duty, including any unexpected reserve duty, such as “Tzav 8” or training reserve duty, who served under such reserve duty in half or full days, is entitled to receive service benefits from the National Insurance Institute. Generally, the employee provides the service order to the employer, the employer files the documents to the National Insurance Institute, pays the employee its regular wage and is then compensated by the National Insurance Institute up to the applicable ceilings and relevant regulations.

Holidays

Israel’s official public holidays are eight days of Jewish holidays and Israel’s Independence Day (for all Israelis).

Non-Jewish employees may choose to take rest days on days relevant to their religious holidays instead, and a government announcement specifies the official holidays for Christians, Muslims and Druze.

Monthly employees are entitled to regular pay on holidays. Hourly employees are entitled to their average wage received during the three months prior to the holiday if they worked at the same workplace or for the same employer at least three months before the holiday, provided the holiday does not occur on the Sabbath day and the employee was not voluntarily absent from work the day before and the day following the holiday.

Limitations on Confidentiality

Commercial secrets are regulated in Israel by legislation. The law defines a “commercial secret” as follows: “Business information, of any kind, that is not in the public domain and cannot easily be revealed by others lawfully, the secrecy of which grants the owner a business advantage compared to its competitors, all as long as the owner has taken reasonable measures to maintain its secrecy.” The business matters that can be defined as commercial secrets are varied: knowledge regarding production processes, technical sketches, models, new ideas, reputation, market surveys, and client/customer lists. The employer alleging the existence of a commercial secret must prove its existence. In the framework of proving the commercial secret, the employer must first demonstrate that there is a secret and that reasonable measures to ensure it remains a secret have been taken. Additionally, the employer must specify the scope of time for which the matter must remain a secret.

When the courts interpret the term “commercial secret”, they consider the interests of the public, the public’s right to freedom of information, and the question of whether there is any significance to the secret becoming known to all. At times, this consideration overrides the protection of the employer’s “commercial secrets”. The term “commercial secret” is interpreted narrowly by the courts. The labour courts’ premise is that the employee is not using the previous employer’s commercial secrets when working with a new employer. The law also provides that in the event that the knowledge that is incorporated in the commercial secret reached a person during the course of their employment with the owner of the commercial secret, and this knowledge became part of their general professional skills, or in the event that the use of the commercial secret is justified for reasons of public policy, such person shall not be deemed liable for theft of a commercial secret.

Employment agreements in Israel usually include broader confidentiality undertakings that protect all information the employees receive from the employer in the framework of their employment.

There is no specific legislation that regulates non-compete clauses in employment agreements. Although the courts give significant consideration to the “freedom of occupation” principle, this does not completely preclude the validity of clauses that limit the “freedom of occupation”. Employment relations entail an enhanced fiduciary duty, which implicitly prohibits competition during employment. It is customary for contractual arrangements to address the requirement to refrain from competition both during the period of employment and following the termination thereof. Non-compete clauses generally appear in personal employment agreements and are less common in collective agreements. In examining the validity of non-compete clauses in employment agreements, the courts balance the various interests: the employee’s freedom of occupation as opposed to the employer’s interest to protect its property, a principle incorporated in Israeli basic law. According to labour court rulings, even if a non-compete clause exists in an employment agreement, it is not binding, in and of itself, unless it is reasonable and protects the interests of both parties. In the absence of special circumstances, which shall be specified below, the employee’s freedom of occupation takes precedence over the non-compete clauses. The labour courts’ premise is that the employer’s desire that the employee not compete with it, for the sole sake of preventing competition, is not sufficient in and of itself; to this end, the courts have stipulated certain conditions that if at least one of which is met, this might permit the enforcement of the non-compete clause.

Over the last decade, there were only a few cases in which the courts enforced non-compete clauses in employment agreements. These few cases were those who are of the opinion that enforcing a clause that restricts one’s occupation is granted mainly in cases in which the employer manages to prove use of a commercial secret.

Non-solicitation Clauses

Non-solicitation restriction on employees is not regulated in Israeli legislation and is enforced in rare circumstances, mainly based on the lack of good faith and breach of fiduciary duty by personnel holding senior positions, which vitally harms the interests of the former employer. If a determination is made, it is generally based on the formation of a competing business prior to termination of employment with the former employer.

Non-solicitation of Employees

The labour courts have perceived third parties who cause the violation of the duty of confidentiality or other duties that the employee has towards their employer, as parties that commit the civil wrong of “cause of breach of contract” pursuant to tort laws. In the event of a valid and enforceable non-compete clause, a “poaching” employer may allegedly be considered liable for the tort of “cause of breach of contract”. Among other criteria, it will be necessary to prove that the “poaching” company had knowledge of the existence of the contract and was aware that the action taken may possibly breach the contract. According to the elements of said civil wrong, there needs to be a causal connection between the approach by the new employer to the employee and the employee’s resignation in a manner that is contrary to that stated in his/her employment agreement.

Non-solicitation of Customers

The matter of non-solicitation of clients and customers is also not regulated in Israeli legislation. The prohibition to solicit clients and customers during the course of the employment relationship also derives from the enhanced fiduciary duty an employee has towards his/her employer. It is customary for contractual arrangements to include a non-solicitation covenant applied during the employment relationship and following the termination thereof. Non-solicitation covenants generally appear in personal employment agreements and are less common in collective agreements. The circumstances specified above regarding the enforcement of non-competition covenants and the conditions, which, if one of which is met, a non-competition covenant might be enforced, are also relevant to the enforcement of non-solicitation covenants. The enforcement of a covenant regarding the non-solicitation of clients and customers also depends on whether the employer’s customer/client list is a protected commercial secret.

An employee has the right to privacy in the workplace environment. Opinions delivered by labour courts have made it clear that while an employer has a legitimate right to protect the employer’s assets and avoid legal risks, the employer must consider and protect its employees’ right to privacy. Consequently, employers’ attempts to justify employee surveillance will be construed narrowly.

Unlawful monitoring, unauthorised data use and data breaches pose risks for employers, which may result in civil action and, in some cases, criminal liability.

According to the Israeli regulator, an employer must comply with the following principles.

Consent – an employer must receive an employee’s informed and freely given consent for collecting and processing the employee’s personal information.

Transparency – an employer must provide its employees with a description of the steps of collecting, maintaining, processing and transferring their personal information to third parties.

Legitimate Purpose – an employer must be able to show a legitimate reason for collecting personal information from its employees.

Right of Access – an employer must allow its employees to access their personal information stored on the employees databases.

Data Collection – collection and retention of personnel information should meet employment purposes and needs, and the employer should routinely review and confirm the legitimacy and scope of data collected.

Data Location Controls – an employer should maintain and update the places where the personal information of employees is stored and processed and also maintain specific access rights and a description of the purposes for collecting and processing the personal information.

Information Security – an employer must deploy adequate procedures to secure employees’ personal information and prevent data breach and misuse.

Training – an employer must conduct regular and ongoing privacy and security training to all relevant personnel.

Audits – an employer must make sure that all the employer’s personnel and contractors (including outsourcing services) maintain all procedures related to the collection and processing of employees’ personal information.

The employer, whether a local entity, foreign entity, or foreign entity registered in Israel, is required to obtain a work permit from the Israeli Ministry of Interior (MOI), and foreign nationals who wish to work in Israel must obtain a B-1 work visa. A work visa is only granted following an application submitted by the applicant (employer or other inviting entity) who has already obtained a work permit for those specific employees (except for a few specific circumstances).

Work permits are issued to a closed list of industries. Currently, the industries in which the employment of foreign workers is allowed are high-tech, industry, agriculture, hotels, caregiving, construction, unique technologies, infrastructure, and national infrastructure projects. However, these days, the Israeli government is working on expanding this list as a response to the severe shortage of foreign workers due to the war. Each industry has unique rules and procedures that apply for the employment of foreigners, obtaining work permits and visas, recruitment, and employee placement practices (both substantive rules and procedural rules), and they differ greatly between industries.

Recruitment of blue-collar foreign employees is done via bilateral agreements (G2G) as a default; however, in some industries, private recruitment (B2B) is allowed under certain terms.

The employment of foreign employees in the construction industry is allowed exclusively by designated workforce companies or by foreign execution companies (foreign construction companies) – who have unique licences.

A foreign employee’s work period in Israel is limited to 63 months except for unusual circumstances. Employees will not be allowed to enter Israel for work purposes if there is a concern that they might wish to settle in Israel; blue-collar employees will not be allowed to enter if they have first-degree relatives in Israel.

Foreign employees, in general, are entitled to the same protective rights as Israeli employees – and the limitations on their employment are no different than those that apply to local employees (in terms of work hours, breaks, occupational hazards, etc), except for a few specific additional entitlements such as: entitlement for accommodation at the employer’s expense, private health insurance, and other protective provisions. In addition, in certain industries, particular provisions may apply.

Registration of foreign employees and other administrative matters relating to their employment (recruitment, entry, compensation and more) are governed by the Israeli Ministry of Interior and are operationally intertwined with the procedures of obtaining (and extending) work permits and visas. For each industry, different practices and regulations apply.

Filing obligations (in terms of tax and the National Insurance Institute law) entailed with the employment of foreign employees are no different than those applicable to the employment of locals, although the specific arrangements may differ.

See 3.1 Data Privacy Law and Employment, which sets the basis for the possibility of an employer to monitor and supervise his employees when they work remotely.

No legislation explicitly relates to mobile work; however, many workplaces are adopting policies relating to mobile work, digital nomads’ mobility, work from abroad and so on. According to case law, it is the employer’s prerogative to decide whether or not to allow its employees to work remotely, as long as the considerations for such decisions are made in good faith and without prohibited discrimination between employees.

Due to the expansion of remote work after COVID-19, a private bill was submitted to the Knesset in 2022 relating to remote work arrangements in order to regulate said matter through legislation. Since then, policies have been adopted in the public sector as well as in private companies, and although employers mostly tend to prefer that their employees work on the premises, remote work is regulated and common in Israel, mainly in the hi-tech sector, for at least several days during a working month.

This is not relevant in Israel’s private sector.

See 5.1 Mobile Work.

Iron Swords War

Due to the current Iron Swords war in Israel, there were many changes in employment regulations, such as the addition of new categories of protected employees (protection can be both from termination and from worsening of employment conditions).

Equal Pay for Female and Male Employees

In 2020, an amendment to the law was adopted, which imposed a duty on all public sector employers and on all employers employing more than 518 employees to publish an annual report detailing the average salary gaps between male and female employees.

The first reports for 2021 were published by 1 June 2022. Ahead of this date, updated guidelines were published for employers regarding the manner in which they should prepare their annual reports, detailing the average wage gaps between male and female employees, in accordance with the law.

The main update in the new guidelines is the transparency required, as employers are now obliged to publish a report that must include wage details of all employees employed during the calendar year prior to the publication date. The segmentation within the reports must include all employees at the workplace, specified by gender; there should be a notice to employees about the group to which they belong in the employee segmentation, etc.

Employers with wage gaps are encouraged to adopt an internal plan to implement a process of gradual and adjusted change to reduce the gaps in the manner proposed in the guidelines.

Although said guidelines are considered recommendations, they should at least be seen as a guiding principle concerning how the reports should be prepared.

Gig Economy

The gig economy has been a subject of significant debate globally.

In Israel, the leading lawsuit (class action) concerning the classification of gig workers is still pending as an appeal was filed on the decision of the regional court.

The declared goal and purpose of the unionisation process is to improve the employees’ employment conditions and secure their employment, including representing the employees in the process of negotiations for a collective bargaining agreement with the employer.

According to the law, a collective agreement may be signed only between the employer or an employer’s organisation (on the employer’s behalf) and a representative employees’ union organisation (on behalf of the employees).

The law defines a representative employee’s union, for this matter, as the employees’ union organisation comprising, or representing for the purposes of that agreement, the greatest number of organised employees to whom the agreement is to apply, on condition that such number is not less than one-third of the total number of employees to whom the agreement is to apply.

Therefore, in the initial stage of unionisation, at least one-third of the company’s employees have to sign a membership form explicitly expressing their will to be represented by a recognised employees’ union organisation in order for such organisation to become a “representative employees’ union organization” for the purpose of signing a collective agreement.

Whether to join or not is the personal and voluntary choice of each employee, and an employee who wishes to join a trade union is required to sign their written consent. However, if at least one-third of the company’s employees join the employees’ union organisation, that organisation will be held as the representative union of all the employees employed by said company. This union may demand to negotiate on behalf of all employees of a relevant employer (or to members of a smaller bargaining group, if applicable).

Employee representative bodies represent employees in organised workplaces.

In general, the role of the employee representative body is to act in matters related to the working conditions of each employee (at the individual level) and of all employees at the workplace (at the collective level), to deal with individual issues and to contribute to the promotion of the welfare of the employees, subject to the authority of the employee’s organisation.

An employee representative body, local or national, is not a party to a collective agreement (specific or collective). However, it is accepted in the labour relations system in Israel that the representative organisation and the employee representative body at the workplace jointly sign collective bargaining agreements, which expresses the fact that the representative organisation acted on the committee’s opinion so that the employee representative body considers itself morally bound to the signed agreement.

An employer is prohibited from dismissing an employee or worsening their employment conditions because of their activity in establishing an employee representative body or employees committee or because of their membership or activity in a committee operating within the framework of an employee’s organisation.

In Israel, there are two forms of collective bargaining agreements: (i) a special collective agreement covering one workplace or employer or a specific bargaining unit in the employer. A special collective agreement will be negotiated between the employer and the representative union of such employer’s employees, and (ii) a general collective agreement, covering a specific industry or the entire workforce. A general collective agreement will be negotiated and executed between the representative employees union in a specific field of business and an employers’ organisation in the same field.

All collective agreements have both a contractual and a normative status, such that their provisions, which grant rights to employees, become part of the employee’s individual employment agreements, and the employees may not waive such rights.

The Minister of Labor may decide to issue extension orders of general collective bargaining agreements and expand the provisions of general collective bargaining agreements (or parts of such agreement) either to all employers and employees in Israel or to all employers and employees in a specific field of business in Israel. Extension orders’ provisions bind employers and employees whether or not they are included in the specific employment agreement.

Examples of general extension orders that have been applied to all employers in Israel relate, for instance, to payment of recreation pay, reimbursement for commuting to work and back and pension.

Employment relations under Israeli law are not “at will” employment relations since the employer is only allowed to terminate an employee’s employment in good faith and due to a priori matter-of-fact reasons, and there are several limitations relating to termination of employment of employees belonging to certain categories as detailed in 7.5 Protected Categories of Employee.

Before any termination, the procedure that must be followed is a hearing process, which is a case law development. The basis of the hearing process is that employees have the right, prior to the employer deciding whether to terminate their employment, to (i) hear the reasons and considerations of the employer regarding such termination, and (ii) have their position on such reasons, and any other related matter, heard by the employer and genuinely considered by the employer. The hearing process should not be a technical formality but rather a real and authentic opportunity before a termination decision has been made. Case law speaks in terms of “good faith”, “open hearts and minds”, and being willing and able to be convinced.

Israeli law does not require a specific termination process different from the standard termination process (hearing) in case of redundancy unless such process is specifically required by virtue of a general or specific collective bargaining agreement applicable to the employer.

According to Israeli law, there are minimal statutory notice periods required, which begin at one day per month of employment and gradually increase to a maximum of 30 days, as follows.

• Monthly employees:
1. during the 1st six months of employment – 1 day per each month of employment;
2. as of the 7th month of employment and until the completion of one year of employment – six days, and an additional 2.5 days per each month of employment during said period; and
3. as of the completion of one year of employment – 30 days.
• Hourly employees:
1. during the 1st year of employment – one day per each month of employment;
2. during the 2nd year of employment – 14 days, and an additional one day per every two months of employment during said period;
3. during the 3rd year of employment – 21 days, and an additional one day per every two months of employment during said period; and
4. following the 3rd year of employment – 30 days.

Severance is also required, according to Israeli law, on top of the notice period. According to the law, a person who has been employed continuously for one year by the same employer or at the same place of employment and has been dismissed by the employer is entitled to severance pay. However, the severance payments are usually already accrued in the employee’s pension scheme, which is transferred to the employee’s ownership at the end of his/her employment.

The law determines that an employee may be dismissed without severance payment and/or notice period if the circumstances in which they are dismissed justify denying such rights according to the definition of the term “cause” in the collective bargaining agreement applicable to the largest number of employees.

Courts interpret the term cause narrowly on the assumption that dismissal is a sanction in itself, and therefore, only very severe circumstances are recognised as justifying deprivation of rights (such as theft from an employer or sexual harassment, etc). Based on these rulings, it is highly common that employment agreements include a specific definition of the circumstances that are considered “cause”.

In the event that an employer wishes to claim for “cause”, they must notify the employee in advance of its intention to revoke severance and/or notice period in order for the employee to be able to be prepared for the hearing and raise his/her claims in this respect as well before the employer reaches any decision in his/her regard.

A termination agreement is permissible, and most of the time, employees will waive their right to a hearing during such a process. A release may be valid subject to certain criteria:

• it should be done in writing;
• the employer must explain to the employee the meaning of such a release and its implications;
• the release is given against an ex-gratia benefit, which is provided beyond the mandatory payments that the employee is entitled to upon termination; and
• all benefits to which the employee is entitled to in connection with the termination of his/her employment should be detailed and explained to the employee prior to the execution of the release.

There are particular categories of protected employees, for example:

Employees on parental leave and for 60 days after their return to work, employees undergoing fertility treatments, employees utilising their mandatory sick leave, employees during their reserve duty and for 30/60 days (under certain circumstances during the “Iron Swords War”) after they return to work. Currently, during the war, protection from dismissal is also temporarily given to employees who are absent from work due to evacuation from their homes, their child or sibling being abducted, and employees whose spouses are in reserve duty, etc.

Other restrictions related to discrimination prohibitions are detailed in section 8.2 Anti-discrimination.

The grounds for a wrongful dismissal claim can be procedural (for example, the employer did not follow a hearing procedure or did have a hearing meeting but did not fulfil all the requirements related thereto (for example, not providing the employee enough time in advance) or substantive, which can be a termination for a reason which is not genuine, or termination based on the grounds of discrimination and so on.

The courts apply various sanctions when it has been ruled that termination obligations were improperly implemented, including declaring the termination void (mainly in the public sector unless the law provides otherwise) and/or ordering compensatory damages for bad-faith unlawful termination.

The law prohibits discrimination in hiring, promotion, determination of employment terms, professional training and/or termination of employment and severance pay based on (among others) gender, disability, sexual orientation, personal status, pregnancy, fertility treatments, IVF and parenting.

In addition, the law guarantees equal pay to women and men employees employed by the same employer in the same workplace for performing equal work (by its nature or equivalent work).

Therefore, the grounds for claims on anti-discrimination may be diverse and numerous as they can be related to a hiring process only or termination, promotion processes and so on, and they are based on various criteria as detailed above.

If an employer requests information from a job candidate or an employee relating to the subject matters based on which discrimination is forbidden, the burden of proof that there was no discrimination lies with the employer.

The courts may order compensatory damages, which vary according to the cause of action.

There is no legislation regarding the digitalisation of employment disputes; however, there are regulations that were published by the Directory of Courts in Israel regarding digital court proceedings, according to which:

(a) A party wishing to have the court proceeding via Zoom shall submit a request to the judge at least three days before the date of the court hearing and if this request is approved by the judge, the court proceeding shall take place via Zoom.

(b) During said video proceedings, all participants shall be present with their cameras open 5 minutes before the proceeding starts, and no participant shall leave the video proceeding or turn off their cameras before it ends. Recording or taking pictures is forbidden without the court’s approval.

Labour Courts

Matters relating to employment relations in Israel are within the jurisdiction of separate labour courts. These courts are not detached from the general legal system, and their judgments are subject to review by the Supreme Court, which may, in certain (rare) cases, rescind a labour court decision if it finds that the decision was based on a legal error or if rescinding the decision serves justice. The general courts can also formulate policies regarding labour and employment issues because they are entitled to rule on matters relating to employment agreements that are raised in the framework of ordinary claims within the jurisdiction of the general courts.

The labour court system operates in two instances. The higher instance is the National Labor Court. There is one such court in the country. The National Labor Court has first-instance jurisdiction on matters relating to collective agreements and the parties thereto, as well as on claims in which the parties are labour unions. The National Labor Court also serves as an appellate court for Regional Court rulings.

The lower instance is the Regional Labor Courts. All matters not mentioned above are within the jurisdiction of the Regional Courts. The choice of the region in which an action is filed is determined based on geographical considerations, according to the employee’s workplace or the place where the work is performed.

The labour courts also have a special and unique composition of judicial panels. Along with the judges, these also include representatives of employees and employers. The number of people on the panel varies, as follows.

• At the National Labor Court, the panel can comprise of up to seven persons – three judges, two employees’ representatives, and two employers’ representatives. The size of the panel is determined based on the matter being addressed.
• Generally, at the Regional Labor Courts, the panel comprises three persons – a judge, an employee’s representative, and an employer’s representative.

Class Actions

Class actions are available in labour courts subject to certain exceptions set forth in the law. The process starts with filing a motion to approve the class action.

Representations in Court

In labour courts, representation is a crucial aspect of the judicial process. Employees, employers, unions, and representative bodies can be represented by lawyers. Lawyers specialising in labour law are commonly engaged for their expertise in navigating the complexities of employment disputes. Unions often play a significant role, particularly in collective disputes, providing support and representation for their members.

During court proceedings, both parties present evidence and arguments, through their lawyers or, less commonly, on their own. The process includes filing claims, participating in pre-trial mediations, and, if necessary, proceeding to court hearings. Decisions from regional labour courts can be appealed to the National Labor Court, ensuring a thorough review of legal and procedural aspects. This system is designed to provide fair and equitable resolutions to employment-related conflicts.

As a rule, arbitration is not possible where mandatory rights are involved.

The labour courts usually award expenses and attorney’s fees to the winning party; however, in order to allow employees access to exercise their rights in the labour courts, the amount of fees and expenses awarded is relatively low, regardless of who the winning party is.