Left Menu
Contract Workers

Contract Workers

In developed countries today, 1.5% of employees are hired with a contract. In Israel, contract employment constitutes approximately 5-10% of all employment in the labor market, of which 20% exists in the public sector.* Contract employment is most commonly executed through manpower agencies that mediate negotiation over employment terms between the employer and the employee. This negotiation can occur in many different ways, for example through companies whose services are provided for directly by its workers, or companies that outsource workers to secondary companies.

Read More

Contract employment is common in sectors like security, dining, maintenance, technology, social work, law, and education/teaching. Contract employment is common among relatively disadvantaged groups in the global labor market: women, new immigrants, and migrant workers. In Israel, contract employment is common among the Arab sector. These workers often earn below minimum wage and do not receive full recognition of their employment rights, such as paid overtime, vacation and annual leave, convalescence pay, severance pay or prior notice of dismissal.

Section 12A of the Employment of Employees by Manpower Contractors Law (2008) obligates the transition of a contract worker into direct employment after nine months. Unfortunately, this law is unenforced when workers are employed by service companies or through outsourcing. The lack of enforcement of this law presents a true challenge not only to workers hired with a contract, but also to all others in the labor market. The Enforcement Department of the Ministry of Economy continues to claim that it does not have the necessary resources to enforce this right in Israel. This claim persists despite the additional resources allocated to the Ministry in previous years for this purpose.

*Statistics taken from a mission paper written by the employment committee during social justice protests in 2011.