The Never-Ending Story

“Migdal Hame’a” is a shopping mall located in central Tel Aviv. In the mall’s basement sits a man named Israel Cohen, who decided to open a cleaning company by the name of “Excellent”. The fact that this company is not legally registered does not prevent the mall’s management and other restaurants in Tel Aviv from subcontracting cleaners through this company. It disturbs them even less that Mr. Israel Cohen doesn’t always bother with paying his workers their salary. 

December 2007 

A refugee from Eritrea contacted Kav LaOved’s offices, telling us that during October he worked in Migdal Hame’a for seven days a week, 12 hours a day on average. The worker did not get any breaks nor travel allowance, but those are not the reason he contacted us. The worker received from Mr. Israel Cohen a check with his October salary, and was surprised to discover that the check bounced. When the worker complained to Israel, he wrote him a new check, but this one bounced as well. We spoke with Israel and he said that there is a problem with the bank account, and that he will come the next day to pay the worker with cash. Israel did not arrive. Israel did not answer the phones. Israel did not respond to the demand letters we sent him.

January 2008

Three workers from Eritrea came to our offices to complain about their salary being withheld for over a month by Israel Cohen. The three worked in Migdal Hame’a, 10-18 hours a day. They did not get any breaks, nor any travel allowance, and have never heard about overtime payment. Letters were sent to Israel.

February 2008

The letters were returned, so we sent the workers to deliver the letters to Israel Cohen themselves. The same day, the workers came back with the letters torn apart, and said that Israel was really angry about getting the letters. In the meantime, a fifth worker came to our offices, whose salary check bounced. He was working in similar conditions to the three other workers.

Letters were sent to the businesses that contracted Mr. Cohen’s cleaning services, the places where the workers actually worked, but we didn’t receive any responses. We’ve decided to get The Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor (ITL) involved, and we sent them the details.

March 2008

A little research: we set out to look for the mysterious contractor in his office in Migdal Hame’a. Mission Impossible. The owners of shops refused to give any information about Mr. Israel Cohen. His office is located somewhere in the mall’s basements, but all we found were locked doors. To our big surprise, following the intervention of the Ministry of ITL, Mr. Israel Cohen contacted us by phone and said that he would like to pay the workers their salary. A scintilla of hope.

Israel sent our offices a messenger to take copies of the worker’s work hours statements. In addition, meetings were set with each worker for each day of the week. Israel did not come to the meetings, but sent a representative to meet each worker and calculate the salary, including overtime

April 2008

Another worker comes to complain about not getting his salary for January 2008. The same story, same bounced check. The employee was sent to work as a cleaning person at a coffee shop and in a restaurant in Tel Aviv.

May 2008

Big day. Israel Cohen’s face has appeared in our offices. Israel came to coordinate with the workers how much each will receive. He then said that on the next day he would come with checks for everyone. A sense of the end is in the air, a small victory.

The next day, Israel did not arrive. Nor the day after.

A week later, the representative arrived with checks for the workers. The checks were made redeemable as of mid-June. At the same time, two other employees, who did not receive their salary for February and March, came to complain. The workers worked in a restaurant in Tel Aviv.

Mid June 2008 

Check's pay day. The bank teller says that there is no money in the account. Despair, frustration, anger. But it’s OK, Israel said over the phone the same thing he said in December 2007: he will arrive the next day to pay all workers cash.

We've updated our contact in the Ministry of ITL, who spoke with Israel Cohen's wife, Efrat, and said that she’s the one who can get him to pay.

End of June 2008 

Efrat arrives at a meeting to learn the details of her husband’s debts. She apologizes for any delay, and said that Israel’s account manager cheated him and stole his money. She wanted to pay the debt to the workers, and promised that in two months the money will come to our offices by chunks.

It should be noted that a worker came to complain about another delay of payment for the month of May. That is, if we thought that Israel would stops with this shady business, we were wrong. He continues to use the name of a company not listed, and continues to delay the salary of workers.

But do not despair, Efrat already sent two payments, and two of the employees got their salary. Now all that’s left is to pay seven more workers.

July 2008

You thought it’s over? Another worker came to complain, withheld payment for June 2008. He worked in a restaurant in Tel Aviv and the restaurant owner forwarded the payment to Israel, but Israel decided to keep the money to himself. Why not actually? What does he stand to lose?

After checking with our contact in the Ministry of ITL he said that in any event, whether Israel will pay all workers or not, he will be fined for the long withheld payments. Now it only remains to hope that a fine will indeed deter Mr. Cohen in the future.