Subscribe to Print Edition | Wed., April 16, 2008 Nisan 11, 5768 | | Israel Time: 02:53 (EST+7) web haaretz.com   Back to Homepage Rosner's Domain Diplomacy Defense Jewish World Opinion National Print Edition Advertising Books Arts & Leisure Business Real Estate Easy Start Travel Week's End Anglo File

Last update - 02:49 16/04/2008 Success notwithstanding By Tahel Frosh Tags: labor rights, Foreign workers  For a period of four years Dr. Yuval Livnat has been fomenting a change in the attitudes of institutions toward workers in general and foreign workers in particular. His successes include a National Labor Court order to the effect that the collective agreement in the construction industry also applies to those who work by the hour, and a statement from the Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry that it will enforce the laws that protect Palestinians who are employed in Jewish settlements in the territories, and that it has begun to refuse hiring permits to employers who have violated the rights of migrant workers. Credit also goes to Livnat for the passage in the Knesset of a law prohibiting human trafficking, including enslavement and forced labor; that the government has decided to sign international treaties with the home countries of migrant workers and that the workers will be recruited abroad by the International Organization for Migration (IOM); and that the Tel Aviv municipality has canceled indictments against employees for working on the Sabbath and has undertaken to indict the business owners. Nevertheless, Livnat is critical of the government and its ministries. According to him, two years after the High Court of Justice ruled that confining a worker to a single employer on his work permit is not legal, the Interior Ministry is still implementing the same policy. Of the Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry, he says that it does not enforce the protective laws - first and foremost the minimum wage law. Advertisement The police, he says, are not fighting the phenomenon of defrauding foreign workers, who pay thousands of dollars to middlemen for jobs and then discover they have no employers. The Health Ministry, he says, does not apply the National Health Insurance Law to migrant workers and refugees; the Immigration Police arrest and deport foreign workers who find themselves in a situation of "illegal" status because of fraud on the part of manpower companies or abuse on the part of their employers. Livnat is also critical of the Knesset for not taking action to eliminate the phenomenon of "manpower company workers" and "hourly workers" who are employed alongside "regular" workers but receive lower compensation, and of the Labor Courts for making it difficult to field test cases of workers against employers. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Never forget Peres, at Warsaw uprising memorial: Israel will avenge Holocaust through peace. Return to Haifa Provocative new play evokes sympathy for both Jews and Palestinians

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