Labor Court upholds ruling that pimps must pay trafficked woman wages due

The National Labor Court on Wednesday denied an appeal by four men convicted of trafficking women, and ordered them to pay NIS 260,000 to a Moldovan woman they had bought and sold into prostitution. The judges, led by court president Steve Adler, ruled that the woman is entitled to at least minimum wage for her labor, even though no employee-employer relations existed between her and the traffickers.

"The appeal before us unveils the phenomenon of trafficking women for prostitution, which is nothing but the modern face of the slave trade, which had seemingly disappeared from the world. We are dealing with a phenomenon that is a disgrace to modern society, and with an affliction that has spread in these parts as well," Adler wrote.

The woman arrived in Israel nine years ago, when she was 19. Back in Moldova she had been promised work as a masseuse for $1,000 a month. Once in Israel, she found out she would work as a prostitute. Over the course of 11 months she was bought and sold four times, for amounts ranging from $3,000 to $6,500. She was forced to take between five and 20 customers a day, in clubs and private apartments in Be'er Sheva and Tel Aviv. Although her customers paid NIS 100 or NIS 150 each, she was paid at most NIS 20, and sometimes nothing. In addition, she was forced to have sex with the traffickers and their friends, and was not allowed out unaccompanied.

In 2000 the woman was arrested for being in Israel illegally, and shortly thereafter indictments were filed against four of her traffickers - Eli Ben Ami, Eli Ackerman, Lior Ben Sheetrit and Grigory Davidov. But, the serious charges notwithstanding, plea bargains were signed and the four received prison sentences that ranged from six months to 33 months.

Meanwhile, the woman sued the four men in the regional labor court in Be'er Sheva for withheld wages, her purchase and sale prices, and compensation for the suffering and pain they caused her. This court established that there had not been labor relations between her and the traffickers, but ruled that in view of the humiliation and exploitation she underwent, the claimant was entitled at least to basic protective rights under the labor laws. The judges ordered the men to pay her minimum wages for 11 months of work - around NIS 26,000 plus interest, as well as NIS 240,000 as compensation for pain and suffering.

The traffickers appealed the verdict, arguing that the regional labor court had no jurisdiction to hear the case of a trafficking victim. The higher court rejected their appeal, ruling that the lower court had full jurisdiction.

Judge Adler stated that the fact that the woman was led into prostitution by fraud and force does not nullify her right to receive wages. Indeed, Adler added, he would have made the traffickers pay the victim all their profits from her prostitution. But since she did not appeal the amounts ruled by the regional court, the national court cannot order additional sums.

However, Adler ordered the traffickers to pay the woman's court costs of NIS 75,000.