Last update - 00:00 27/01/2008
New labor bill puts workers' rights in companies' hands
By Ruth Sinai, Haaretz Correspondent
A bill that would monitor the implementation of labor laws based on a unique model of cooperation between the government, the Histadrut labor federation and private employers' organizations has been formulated by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor. The bill proposes a series of warnings and fines for non-compliance with labor laws, and also places responsibility for ensuring the rights of human resource company workers, like cleaners and guards, on the body commissioning their services.
The bill, which has been criticized by social action groups for being too lenient on bodies commissioning human-resource workers, calls for issuing a warning to an employer suspected of non-compliance with labor laws to rectify the situation within 30 days. If this is not done, a fine can be imposed by a labor-law inspector, which the employer can appeal to a committee, headed by a representative of the Justice Ministry and including representatives of the Histadrut and the employers' organizations.
Fines will range from NIS 5,000 to NIS 35,000 for each infraction, with the industry, trade and labor minister authorized to reduce them. Senior officials of the employing company may also be fined if it is determined that they did not prevent the impairment of workers' rights.
If the suspected infraction was committed by a human-resource company, the body that hired the firm will also receive a warning, to give it the opportunity to pressure the company to mend its ways, or face having to give up its contract, so the commissioning body can avoid having to pay a fine itself.
The bill has been slammed by the Forum for Ensuring Workers' Rights, a coalition of social action groups, for going easy on non-compliant employers. For example if a body commissioning the services of a human resource contractor breaks its contract with the contractor, the fine will be revoked. The fine will not be imposed if the commissioning body employs less than four human resource contractor's workers, nor if it employed the workers for less than six months, and under other circumstances.
However, the commissioning body will be fined if it can be proved that it contracted with a human resource company under other conditions, in which it would be impossible to pay the workers lawfully.
"The bill actually removes responsibility from the commissioning body and constitutes a retreat from the present situation," the forum said.
The forum has also accused the trade ministry of trying to stop a private member's bill its organizations have put forward, which has already been approved for its first reading by the cabinet.