The Industry, Trade and Employment Ministry will be sending 300 inspectors throughout the country from Acre to Be'er Sheva to check employer compliance with labor regulations such as the minimum wage law, as part of a campaign initiated by Minister Eli Yishai.

In a previous effort of this type, 92 percent of employers were found to have broken laws, although no fines were issued because of a lack of personnel at the ministry.

In many cases, even if fines are given out and paid, the money for this comes from the state. Says Eran Golan, an attorney for Kav La'Oved - the Worker's Hotline for the Protection of Worker's Rights: "One hand charges the fine and the other hand writes the check." The reason for is that many companies that break labor laws are employed by municipalities and public corporations - despite the fact that the law prohibits the government from hiring companies that do not pay minimum wage or that do not adhere to employment regulations regarding foreign workers.

Last week - after questions that he addressed from the floor to Minister Yishai and Finance Minister Abraham Hirchson had gone unanswered for months - MK Haim Oron (Meretz) proposed a bill to close the loopholes that two previous laws have been unable to do. His bill would prohibit the government from contracting with suppliers that have broken any labor law, whether they have been criminally convicted or just charged an administrative fine.

In 2002, under pressure from social-action groups, the Knesset passed legislation banning the government from contracting with or purchasing property from those who had been convicted of breaking minimum wage or foreign worker laws. Inexplicably, however, two years later, the cabinet amended the legislation, citing a little-known clause in the Economic Arrangements Law, so that the government would be prohibited from contracting with a supplier only if the latter were convicted twice over a three-year period, during which it violated laws concerning minimum-wage payment or employment of foreign workers.

It is not clear why the Finance Ministry changed the law, since no case is known where the government canceled a contract because the supplier broke such laws. Chances are very slim that this would happen, since enforcement of these laws, which in any case is not very extensive, is done mostly by means of fines; only rarely are criminal indictments issued.

In response to a question, the Industry, Trade and Employment Ministry said that in 2006, 10 employers were convicted of contravening the minimum wage law, and that there is a backlog of over 100 cases in the courts from the previous five to six years. The ministry said that none of the convictions so far are second convictions. Since at present the law requires two convictions in three years, the clause requiring the government not to enter a contract with such an employer cannot be invoked.

The ministry also said in response that the finance minister is responsible for enforcing the law. The Industry, Trade and Employment Ministry only transmits information to him on non-compliant employers. Hirchson's office did not respond.