A year ago, following foreign and local pressure, Swedish owned Soda Club decided to apply Israeli labor law at its factory, and Kav LaOved published a feature stating that Palestinian workers at Soda Club were being paid equal salaries to those of their Israeli colleagues. The Palestinian workers, who were paid the minimum wage, received salary slips and were treated “humanely” by the foremen. They also worked overtime, often over ten hours every day. They said that their aim was to advance at work, and that they wanted to continue working at Soda Club.

On April 16, the dreams of around 140 Palestinians employed by Soda Club through subcontractor Pearl Sol were finally shattered. They were fired and were not paid their March salaries.

Last Friday evening, a company representative phoned the workers and said, “Don’t come to work on Sunday”. They couldn’t believe their ears. The Sol Pearl manpower company that employs them convinced them to go to work the following Sunday (18 April 2010) to get their salaries. But those workers who believed the manpower company were turned away by the guards at a barrier in the industrial zone. Fifteen of them were chosen to continue working at the company’s plant.

Revolving door? 

Two years ago, Salim (a pseudonym), a Palestinian worker in his twenties, was hired by the Soda Club plant in the Mishor Adumim industrial zone. He was among the first Palestinians to be employed at the factory. Most of his fellow-workers were Israeli. To survive in his place of work, he worked hard, for long hours, and at the time received a starvation wage of around 1,700 shekels for a month’s work, during which he worked ten hours a day, twenty days a month (less than half the minimum wage).

Salim, who, like other workers, was fired without a cent in his pocket, described his lack of trust at the Soda Club factory, and commented “I’ve been working for almost two years, and every few months there's a problem: workers are let go, and new ones brought in. We work hard to stay at the factory, but we feel insecure. There are rumors they’ll be hiring workers to replace those fired”. Salim added “I don’t know why they fired me. Didn’t I work hard for the factory? All I wanted was to get my wages”.

In March 2010, Soda Club wanted to hire the Sol Pearl workers as regular workers. Sol Pearl Ltd. refused, and its manager demanded that the workers pay 6000 shekels for their “release” from Sol Pearl. The workers contacted Kav LaOved, which sent a letter to Soda Club, relating the workers’ claims against Sol Pearl Ltd. Sol Pearl denied the claims, and their lawyer’s letter stated that “Of course the claim that my client is seeking 6000 shekels to release workers is totally false. To better illustrate my client’s position, please instruct your clients not to sign any document that they are asked to sign, and this to prove to you that my client is operating in compliance with the law”. Sol Pearl has not answered Kav LaOved's letter concerning its failure to pay the workers’ salaries for March.

Latest developments

On Saturday, the confused workers went to the offices of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions in Jericho. They were embittered, relating that they had often met with the manpower company’s manager, a Palestinian resident of Jerusalem, and with his lawyer, who denied that the company had received money for the workers’ wages. On the other hand, the company gave the workers papers attesting to a bank transfer of the money. Soda Club’s reply to the letter that Kav LaOved sent stressed that the money had indeed been transferred to Sol Pearl Ltd., in accordance with their mutual agreement.
 
Kav LaOved's intervention led to the payment of the March salaries to the workers on April 22. Soda Club promised they will gradually rehire the dismissed workers who had been employed via Sol Pearl. Kav LaOved will follow developments closely, and will help workers take legal action if their plight is not resolved.

Not only Palestinians

Palestinians are not the only workers whose rights are violated at Soda Club. In December 2009, 11 Sudanese refugees complained to Kav LaOved about dismissal without payment of social benefits and due notice. These workers too were employed by Sol Pearl, which deducted 1,000 shekels from their salaries for supposed advance payment that had never been paid, and failed to arrange for their legally required medical insurance. Kav LaOved attempts to get Soda Club to pay the workers their due did not succeed, despite Soda Club’s initial signs of good will.