60,000 caregivers are currently employed in Israel, 80% of whom are female. Approximately 50,000 have a caregiving work permit; all migrant caregivers were originally sought out by the State of Israel, and entered the country legally with a work visa. Most of the undocumented workers lost their status due to regulations of the Ministry of the Interior, or due to their employer and/or manpower company’s failure to arrange their visas properly and legally. About half of caregivers brought to Israel are from the Philippines, around 15% from Nepal, 10% from India, 10% from Sri Lanka, 10% from Moldova, and the rest from various Eastern European countries.Read More.

• Kav Laoved Workers Rights 2018

Caregivers60,000 caregivers are currently employed in Israel, 80% of whom are female. Approximately 50,000 have a caregiving work permit; all migrant caregivers were originally sought out by the State of Israel, and entered the country legally with a work visa. Most of the undocumented workers lost their status due to regulations of the Ministry of the Interior, or due to their employer and/or manpower company’s failure to arrange their visas properly and legally. About half of caregivers brought to Israel are from the Philippines, around 15% from Nepal, 10% from India, 10% from Sri Lanka, 10% from Moldova, and the rest from various Eastern European countries.BackgroundThe Caregiver Law from 1984 was meant to provide elderly people, who had low to intermediate need for care and treatment, assistance for a specific number of hours a day. These elderly people had relatively low dependence on caregivers, as opposed to those who needed long and continuous care, who were admitted into nursing institutions with government funding, or were cared for by Israeli nurses and caregivers at home in shifts. These Israeli workers received high hourly wages.The first migrant caregivers to arrive in Israel were Filipinos, brought by the Defense Ministry to care for handicapped IDF veterans in their homes. Throughout the years, elderly civilians also began requesting permits to hire caregivers to care for them at home.

In the beginning, only those with means were able to afford hiring a full-time caregiver, but as the caregivers’ wages began to decrease each year, elderly people with relatively low incomes also began requesting permits to employ migrant caregivers.It seemed as though this was a win-win situation: elderly people remained in their homes and communities, their families were freed from having to care for them for long hours, and the migrant caregivers could make a living and improve their families’, as well as their own, living conditions. As the caregivers lived with the employer, it seemed as though the workers were able to save living expenses, which increased their savings.But with time, more and more occurrences of exploitation began to surface: complaints of violence, sexual harassment, working all day without rest, caring for the family members living with the patient, and more. With the spread of the around-the-clock employment system, patients who needed intensive, non-stop care all day long began to receive hiring permits. This was followed by incidents of psychiatric hospitalization of caregivers being treated for depression and nervous breakdowns. The number of complaints of exploitation against employers increased.Meanwhile, caregivers’ labor rights were being completely ignored; governmental authorities did not enforce protection laws which regulate payment for overtime, rest hours and vacation, weekly rest, social rights, etc.Today, after these issues had been brought to public attention and have been discussed within the Israeli legal system, the Israeli government’s actions via legislation, procedures and regulations continue to negatively affect the employment conditions of migrant workers. Employing a caregiver around the clock, 24 hours a day, is now perceived as the only possible option when it comes to caregiving. Patients and their families have become more and more dependent on migrant caregivers, who are often not only forced to work 24 hours a day, but in many cases seven days a week, with no rest for months.

Furthermore, there are restrictions regarding workers’ annual leave, visits to their home countries and sometimes even sick leave, all under the justification that the patient needs the caregiver at all hours of the day and cannot adjust to any kind of change in their treatment.Main ProblemsIllegal brokerage fees: As life expectancy has increased along with the elderly population, the number of caregivers being brought to Israel has grown each year as well. Since there is no quota for caregivers in Israel, any person in need of assistance can receive a permit to employ a caregiver from abroad.The lack of bilateral trade agreements (which ensure maintenance of interests of both the country of origin and the state of Israel) creates a broken market, in which manpower companies profit at the expense of migrants. According to a 2012 Kav LaOved survey of over 800 caregivers, all of them paid “mediation fees,” illegal brokerage fees, in exchange for an Israeli work visa, averaging $8,400. Workers who came to Israel from Sri Lanka in 2012 report paying fees of about $10,000 for women, and $15,000 for men.

Kav Laoved Workers Rights 2018

On average, a caregiver in Israel works for a year and a half to two years in order to pay back the money they borrowed in their country of origin to pay for the fees.More than 100 Israeli manpower companies are in charge of bringing about 5,000 caregivers to Israel every year. The brokerage fees are paid in cash, are unreported, and total almost 40 million dollars of unreported income per year. This means that approximately 160 million NIS comes into Israel and is not reported to the authorities. During the first year or two of work in Israel, the worker makes no money, but rather transfers their salary directly to repayment of debts created by the brokerage fees. This situation causes exploitation, also known as debt bondage, of workers, who greatly fear losing their jobs and not being able to pay back the money they owe.

This includes incidents of severe exploitation or even physical harm.Payment and social rights: The majority of complaints in the caregiving field have to do with receiving payment and social rights; main grievances include withheld payment and lack of pension, compensation for holidays, vacation, recuperation, and other social rights. These issues are mostly solved by appealing directly to the employer or the manpower company.Unpaid Pension: Recently, more complaints have been filed against the employer and/or manpower company regarding unpaid pension. Sometimes this occurs because the employer is unaware of the worker’s right to receive pension payments (or is directed by the manpower company not to pay). Often, however, the employer does not agree with the concept of paying for the pension of the worker, who has not yet reached retirement age. Due to previous instruction by the Ministry of Economy, employers and manpower companies claim they should only have to pay when the worker leaves Israel, and therefore they postpone payment.