The Finance Ministry has pledged to allocate NIS 25 million to enforce labor laws, but is not allowing the money to be used to hire inspectors to ensure the laws are being followed. The lack of enforcement personnel has meant that a backlog of some 2,400 complaints of infractions has piled up in the Ministry of Trade, Commerce and Employment.

Trade, Commerce and Employment Minister Eli Yishai (Shas), who informed the Finance Committee yesterday of the allocation, praised the efforts of MK Sheli Yachimovich (Labor), who helped persuade the treasury to make the allocation. Yishai said enforcement in this area was in "catastrophic" straits.

Yachimovich said the money could be used to purchase the services of accountants to scrutinize salary slips and reports by employers, and also to purchase ancillary human resources to assist labor-law inspectors.

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The Trade, Commerce and Employment Ministry sees extra inspectors as
paramount. But by law, inspectors must be state employees to enter work
places, demand salary slips, interview workers, etc.

There are currently 19 labor-law compliance inspectors for more than 2.5 million workers. The enforcement administration at the Trade, Commerce and Employment Ministry says some 55,000 employers in the service sector are believed to be violating labor laws, and the same holds true for many thousands in industry.

The ministry, which had initially requested NIS 45 million but is making do with the NIS 25 million pledged by the treasury, submitted a plan to employ 166 inspectors for two to three years to act as a deterrent, and then to reduce the number to about 70.