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Last update - 00:00 30/03/2006
High Court slams state for terms of permits for migrant workers
By Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondent

The High Court of Justice on Thursday waived a requirement by immigration authorities of migrant workers to remain employed by a single employer in order to keep their work permits valid.

Justices Aharon Barak, Mishael Cheshin and Edmund Levy endorsed a petition submitted by several workers' and human rights groups, including Kav La'oved and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.

The court instructed the State to formulate new arrangements for work permits within six months.
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Under the current arrangement, the name of a specific employer is stamped in the passport of arriving migrant workers. The workers are then forced to remain employed by that particular employer. A worker who is dismissed or chooses to leave the workplace due to poor employment conditions instantaneously becomes an illegal resident.

Human rights group say this policy enfranchises extensive abuse of workers by their employers, including non-payment and paying salaries below the minimum wages.

Court: Arrangement compromises basic rights
Justice Edmund Levy said in the verdict "the arrangement that binds [migrant workers] to a specific employer compromises the basic rights of migrant workers. It hampers the inherent right for liberty, freedom of action and threatens the autonomy of the free will."

According to Justice Levy the migrant worker can only live by "default choice, meaning forced employment at the services of an employer who compromises their rights, does not pay their wages and abuses them, or either quitting that amounts to losing their stay permit in Israel. This cannot be justified."

In light of these facts Levy said "the Interior Minister cannot condition the issuance of stay permits for migrant workers on the attachment to a specific employer."

"The government must formulate a new employment arrangement, which is balanced and fair towards migrant workers in the agriculture, care taking and industry sectors, which will not be based on the employee's attachment to a single employer and would refrain from linking the act of resignation with certain sanctions that include losing the legal status in Israel," the verdict said.
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  1.   Thanks High Court as this is a disgrace!! 13:20  |  arthur 30/03/06
  2.   Working for the man! 14:43  |  JW 30/03/06
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