Israeli law lays out regulations regarding treatment of employees in the workplace, including minimum wage, termination terms, timely salary payments, vacation and sick days and more. Some of these regulations apply to all employees but there are circumstances where the law differentiates between different categories of employees. These are some of the situations in which certain rights don’t apply.
You’ve just started a job
Severance pay is a right that applies to employees who have worked at the same job for a year, although payment into your pension plan begins after three months if you already had a plan from a previous job and after six months if you didn’t.
If you’ve only been in a job for a few months, you’re not eligible for severance pay. If you’re fired close to the one-year mark, you might have a case to claim that the employer fired you in order to avoid paying severance and the courts may force them to pay.
Protection of pregnant women from firing without special permission goes into effect once a woman has been working at the same job for six months. Before that, the employer can fire you just like any other employee.
You are entitled to 15 weeks of maternity leave regardless of how long you’ve been employed. However, the option to extend your leave to 26 weeks, with the additional 11 weeks unpaid, is only available if you have worked for more than one year.
If you haven’t worked for at least 12 months of the past 18 months, you are not eligible for unemployment. You’re also not eligible if you aren’t an Israeli resident, are younger than 20 or older than 67, or voluntarily took unpaid leave.
You’re freelancing
If you’re defined as self-employed, the regular benefits of unemployment, severance pay, paid vacation, sick days and employer contributions to Bituach Leumi (National Insurance) and pension generally do not apply. Instead, freelancers pay their own Bituach Leumi and pension and take unpaid vacation when needed. Freelancers are entitled to maternity leave.
You’re employed by a foreign company
Employees of foreign companies sometimes make the mistake of ignoring their legal obligations in Israel. In addition to the legal trouble you could be in if you get caught, you also have no protection if things go south at work. This can be solved in three ways:
- You can set up a small business in Israel and be self-employed, with the foreign company considered a client. In this arrangement, you have the same rights as any Israeli freelancer.
- You can set up a Ba’am business and become a salaried worker of said business. This arrangement comes with higher accounting fees, so is more suitable in cases where the salary justifies it.
- You can work for an Employer of Record service and receive most of the rights that salaried workers are entitled to.
Sources:
- Employee rights (Hebrew)
- Severance pay (Hebrew)
- Protection of pregnant women from firing (Hebrew)
- Maternity leave (Hebrew)
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