2017

Special ways to hand out payslips

Moshe

In the past I have been asked many times whether sending a payslip via email or posting it on a website is legal. It never reached the court system for a ruling, but the lawmakers, realizing the advances in technology, addressed the issue by updating a new statute in the protection of salary law.

On July 26, 2017 a new statute was added to the protection of salary law (special ways to hand out payslips) was publicized in the records thus making it officially part of the law. The statute states:

An employer may hand out payslips by one or more of the following special ways detailed below, in place of printed payslips;

    1. Via secure internet site on the employer’s behalf * to which an employee may access with initial password supplied by the employer, whereby the employee can view his payslip.

    * An “internet site on the employer’s behalf” is a site that serves the employer and the following two conditions are met:
    A. Allows access to the data saved on it after the employee has been personally identified.
    B. Protective measures are taken, on a regular basis, against unauthorized penetration and disruption of proper useage.

    2. Sending the employee’s payslip to an email address provided by the employer (work email) via an email program.

    3. Sending the employee’s payslip to the employee’s private email address.

      The conditions under which this statute apply are:

    1. The employee agrees and signs written consent to waive receipt of printed payslip via waiver form (see below).

    2. The payslip can be printed at anytime in the future upon demand.

    An employee can retract this consent at any time in the future, in writting, including email notification and the employer will act accordingly from the month after the notification is received.

    The payslip, issued in one of the above special methods, the following directives shall apply:

    1. Issuing the payslip will be done by the determined date (the date salaries are deposited in the bank).

    2. In case of sending payslip to the employee’s personal email address – the employee shall acknowledge receipt, in writting (reply email) shortly after receiving the payslip, and no later than 5 days after the determined date, that
    he has received the payslip.

    3. An employer who has not received email confirmation from an employee acknowledging receipt of the payslip within 5 days of the determined date will issue a printed payslip no later than 10 days after the determined date.

    An employer who issues the employee’s payslip in one of the special ways described above will enable the employee to receive a printed payslip, upon request, for a period of no less than 7 years from the determined date for supplying the employee a payslip according to law.

    An employer who issues payslips via secure internet site, via employee access with password shall allow access to payslips for a minimum period of 12 months from the determined date for supplying the employee a payslip according to law.

    The employer is required to take protective measures that will not allow changes to the payslips that are issued according to this statute.

    The following is an English language wording of the form that needs to be signed by the employee. Note this a legal document and the employer should keep the signed form in the employee’s file.

    Form of consent to receive payslips via electronic media

    Part A

Employee’s name ____________________ Israeli I.D. # ________________________

Name of employer _____________________ Place of work (location) _____________________________

Email address to which payslips will be sent or address of employer’s site to which payslips will be accessable ______________________________________

Employee will choose the method he prefers and check the applicable box accordingly.

I, the undersigned whose details appear above hereby give my consent to receive my payslip for my work in the manner specified below and I am aware that by doing so I waive my right to receive a printed payslip on the determined date according to the law, however I will retain access to the payslip according to statute 3 (A)

[ ] 1. Sent to my email address in the employer’s email system as listed above.

[ ] 2. Via a secure website on the employer’s behalf, accessable by personal password. The site address and password have been provided to me by the employer.

[ ] 3. Sent to my personal email address as listed above.

Note: the employer may erase two of the three options above allowing only one of the options, but he may not erase option 4 below !!

[ ] 4. I, the undersigned whose details appear above do not agree to receive my payslip for my work via electronic methods in any of the 3 options above. I hereby request receipt of a printed payslip each month by the determined date according to the law.

    Part B

This section is to be filled out and signed by the employee only when option 3 above has been chosen as the method in which the employee will receive his payslip.

1. The private email address above has been given to the employer by me and with my consent. I hereby state that this email address is in my own personal use.

Employee’s signature ________________________________ Date __________________________

I have chosen the option to receive my payslip via my personal email address (option # 3), my consent to receive my payslip via this option is with my understanding of all of the following:

1. I am aware that external email systems and accounts are not under the employer’s control.

2. Receiving this form to fill out and sign is the employer’s obligation to take all reasonable measures to ensure that access to my payslips and viewing the information on them will be done soley by me, or with my permission, and at the least the employer has taken measures for encoding the data in order to protect my privacy.

3. Despite the above, I am aware of all of the following:
A. I agree that my payslips be sent to an external email system and the data may be exposed to third parties, amongst them the service provider of the external email service.
B. There is no guarantee that the external email system contains protective measures from hackers, unapproved access and disruption of functionality.
C. It is possible that the data will be lost, not be saved or will not reach the desired destination due to circumstances that are not under the employer’s control.
D. It is possible that the data is stored outside of the borders of the country of Israel and this may have an impact on my rights regarding the usage of the data.
E. I am aware that it is highly recommended that I personally save and backup the payslips that are sent to me via this option.
F. This consent of mine is in effect from now on and until further written notification by me that I have rescinded my consent.

Employee’s signature ________________________________ Date __________________________

Note: This is not legal advice, nor is it meant to be. The purpose of this post is to enhance employee and employer awareness to this addition to the protection of salary law.
The wording is my own and not a literal translation. In any case of contradiction between this post and the law, obviously the wording of the law applies. Employers may use the wording of the above by copying the wording into a word document.

In work contracts for “net pay” who gets the new “family net” benefits, employer or employee ?

Moshe

The “family net” plan, or Kachlon law (named after the Finance Minister Moshe Kachlon) which recently went into effect retroactively from January 2017 added tax credit points for parents of children under 5 and made equal the tax credit points for those children given to men and women. The law will be in effect for the tax years 2017 and 2018 only, unless the knesset decides to add in additional years. If not, the tax credits will return to present state in Jan 2019. Everyone knows that employees with regular gross salaries will receive a larger net pay as a result of this law. But what happens when an employee’s work agreement lists his salary as net ? In general, changes that occur to the tax brackets in a net pay salary will lower the employer’s expense by lowering the gross pay and as a result the taxes, while the employee’s net pay remains unchanged.
In general it seems that this is acceptable practice. But in cases where substantial tax benefits are given to employees, such as the 2001 Negev residents tax benefit, the lawmakers intent was to give this benefit to the employees and not to employers of Negev residents. the same would apply here regarding the Kachlon law. A recalculation of the new net pay would need to be done by using the gross pay, pre change and after adding the change configuring the new net pay.

The above is not legal advice nor is it a replacement for seeking such legal advice. It is the professional opinion of the author based on a labor court decision regarding net pay and tax benefits.

The right to an hour off work/day when spouse is in active reserve army duty

Moshe

IDF soldiers in action
The women’s employment law was updated on July 3, 2017 (correction 58). Accordingly, an employee will be eligible to be absent from work for one hour per day during the period of time when their spouse is in active reserve duty (miluim) in the I.D.F. under the following circumstances:

1. The period of the spouse’s active reserve duty is no less than five consecutive days.

2. The employee has at least one child under age 13.

3. The employee is employed in a full-time position as accepted in place of employment.

4. The employee notified the employer of the intent to utilize this right and presents the employer with a copy of the spouse’s proof of actual active reserve duty.

The above applies to men and women.
Payment for above hours are not to be deducted from salary.
This does not apply to employees who are eligible for paid parent (breast feeding) hours or pregnancy hours.

Youth minimum wages – Jan 2017

Moshe

Due to the mandatory raise in minimum wages in Israel, the minimum wages for youth was also updated.

up to age 16 = 3,500 sh for a monthly wage or 20.23 sh /per hour.

up to age 17 = 3,750 sh for a monthly wage or 21.68 sh /per hour.

up to age 18 = 4,150 sh for a monthly wage or 23.99 sh /per hour.

In addition, for full time, the work week for youth is 40 hours and 173 hours per month. For partial work (not full time – prorated accordingly)

All youth need to be given an employer’s notification of terms and work conditions within 7 days of their start date and monthly payslips and timesheets, same as adult employees.

The Israeli Pay Slip – An In-depth Explanation for The Perplexed

Moshe

As with most things, payroll is much more complicated in Israel than in other countries. In January 2009 a new law was passed to ensure uniform mandatory information that must be specified on all pay slips.

The purpose of this article is to familiarize you with the terminology and help you understand what is printed on your pay slip. For those of you working, it is highly advised to examine your pay slip each month in order to ensure that there are no mistakes. Understanding what was paid/deducted from your pay is critical and to your benefit.

Continue reading “The Israeli Pay Slip – An In-depth Explanation for The Perplexed” →

Self-employed reserve army soldiers to receive more compensation

Moshe

Self-employed individuals who are called up for reserve army duty in the IDF will be getting 25% more than they did up until now. The Knesset approved this update to the law on June 27, 2017 and it will be effective from Jan 2017.

IDF soldiers in action

Tax credit point update (Kachlon law) June 2017

Moshe

The Israel Tax Authority published a new directive to employers on May 28, 2017 regarding tax credit points to parents of children who are salaried employees via their payslip.
1. The number of tax credit points will now be equal for men and women. All parents are now eligible for 1.5 tax credit points in the year their child is born and 2.5 tax credit points in the years the child is age 1 to age 5.
2. This directive is effective for the tax years 2017 and 2018 only (from Jan 2019 it is cancelled, unless an extension is approved by the government).
3. Effective in June 2017 salary (to be paid by July 9, 2107), employers will credit their employees to whom this applies with the additional tax credit points, retroactive to January 2017.
For women: In the year the child is born you will receive 1.5 tax credit points (instead of 0.5 up until now) and in the years the child’s age is 1-5 you will get 2.5 tax credit points (instead of 2 up until now). You can elect to defer 1 tax credit point of the 1.5 allotted for each child to the following tax year (2018). This is done by filling out a 116 D tax form and giving it to your employer (HR or salary dept). You will need to also fill out this form in 2018 (section dalet).
Men do not have this option of deferring tax credit points.
For men: In the year the child is born you will receive 1.5 tax credit points (instead of 1 up until now). In the years the child’s age is 1-2 you will receive 2.5 tax credit points (instead of 2 up until now) and in the year the child’s age is 3 you will receive 2.5 tax credit points (instead of 1 up until now) and in the years the child’s age is 4-5 you will receive 2.5 tax credit points (instead of none up until now).
This will lower taxes on working parents salaries and raise their net pay. The tax credit points are monthly.
Employers: you need to keep this form 116 D with the employee’s 101 tax form.

Minimum wage to increase

Moshe

The minimum wage in Israel  (currently at 4,300 sh per month or 23.12 sh per hour) is being updated in three stages, according to an agreement signed by the General worker’s union (Histadrut klalit) and the Presidency of the Business Organizations in Israel. This will be voted into the book of labor laws by the knesset soon.

The changes are:

per month per hour
From 4/2015 – 4,650 sh 25 sh

From 8/2016 – 4,825 sh 25.94 sh

From 1/2017 – 5,000 sh 26.88 sh

From 4/2017 onwards – 52% of the average salary (but no less than 5,000 sh) to be updated quarterly (Jan, Apr, Jul, Oct) of each year.

bankrupt cartoon