Work disability insurance אובדן כושר עבודה

Loss of work ability is a serious problem and usually results in a sudden and drastic loss of income as well. All salaried employees in israel are protected against a loss of work ability situation by The national social security (Bituach Leumi). In order to receive a stipend a form needs to be filled out and submitted. The form needs to include the employee’s salary information and payroll information for the months preceeding the loss of work ability, as well as the employer’s signature confirming the salary information. Employee’s with pension plans, these usually have loss of work ability insurance built in to the policy. This will usually cover 70% of the employee’s gross pay. Bituach Leumi and pension plan for loss of work ability payments offset each other. An employee can purchase additional coverage so that it will not offset at additional cost. Speak to your pension plan company for more details.

The criteria for payment of loss of work ability insurance are the following:
1. 75% or more of loss of work ability. Approved by employment doctor for as long as this condition continues or the policy ends, which ever comes first. There usually is a waiting period when an employee joins a pension plan until they can file. If the loss of work ability occurs before then, the employee will only receive payment after the waiting period is over.
2. Complete coverage in case of acts of terror.
3. During the period of payment for loss of work ability, the employee is exempt from contributions to the pension plan.

Are work contracts mandatory ?

All employers are required to issue either a work contract or an “employer’s notice of employment terms and conditions” to all employees within 30 days of starting employment. If the employees are youth (under 18) this must be done within 7 days of starting employment. Any change in the employment terms and conditions must also be issued to an employee within 30 days of the change (7 days for employees under age 18).

The only changes that do not require notification to the employee are:
1) Changes due to laws, comprehensive ordinances, collective agreements.
2) Update in salary listed in original contract or employer notification (although it is recommended).
3) A change that is itemized on the payslip.

The regulations state that for an employer to be considered as complying with this regulation the following information must be included in either the work contract or the notification:
1. Employer’s name
2. Employer’s address
3. Employee’s name
4. Employee’s address
5. Employee’s job title and discription of main duties and responsibilities
6. Full name and job title of employee’s direct supervisor
7. Address / location where employee is to be employed
8. Employee’s work days and hours and length of work day
9. Employee’s weekly rest day
10. Employee’s salary and any other payments he/she is entitled to
11. All social benefits employee is entitled to, their % or amounts
12. Employee’s start date, and duration of contract (if applicable)

The notification needs to be signed by the employer. In cases of foreign workers, it needs to be in the foreign worker’s native tongue or a language that they fully understand and be signed by both the employer and the employee.
Failure to comply may result in any or all of the following scenarios:
1) lawsuit in labor court by the employer – there is a specified amount that can be claimed for failure of the employer to comply which can be awarded by the court without need to prove any monetary damage.

There are three separate forms for employer notification to employees:
1. Employer’s notification form of details & terms of employment.
2. Employer’s notification form of contributions towards social benefits (pension, study fund, etc)
3. Employer’s notification form of change in terms of employment (any of the above information that changes require this notification)

All 3 forms are available for download on the Ministry of Economics website: Working Conditions Notification Forms

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

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.

Employers – 6 simple rules to follow and substantially illiminate law suits by employees

From our years of experience, it is very clear that employers who follow these six simple rules (which just happen to be labor laws and regulations that are mandatory for all empployers, in both public and private sectors, in Israel) will reduce drastically the number of suits by employees and former employees. Most of the lawsuits filed in recent years deal with these issues. They are really simple to adhere to and can save you literally time and money.

1. Sign all new employees, within 30 days of their start date (or within 7 days of start date if they are under 18 years of age), on a notification of employment conditions or a contract. This should be done prior to starting to work, or first thing on the first day of work along with other technical things like filling out 101 tax form, issuing a time card, etc
If you use a contract it must contain all of the information on the notification of employment terms form, which is downloadable here:
http://economy.gov.il/Employment/WorkRights/WorkingRelationshipsCreation/Pages/WorkingConditionsNotification
This will illiminate any disputes regarding terms of employment of employees and possible monetary lawsuits for failure to provide this for sums of up to 15,000 sh without need to prove any damage.
A new notification needs to be issued any time that any of the mandatory details change.

2. Make sure all employees have received their salary, payslip and time-sheet by the 9th of the month following the month of salary being paid (For example: June salary – by July 9th). Make sure the payslip is itemized and clear and includes all mandatory information required by law. Eliminate future lawsuits for up to 5,000 sh for each payslip, without need to prove damge. Failure to provide a time-sheet can result in lawsuits for overtime pay and a fine for each month for each employee by the regulation dept of the Ministry of Economics.

3. Do not fire an employee before correctly holding a preliminary hearing according to protocol and avoid lawsuits of tens of thousands of shekels for Illegal termination.

4. Keep track of all employee’s sick days and vacation days balances to avoid unnecessary disputes during employment and possible monetary lawsuits for failure to do so.

5. Insure your employees with mandatory pension plan after six month’s tenure, if they dont have a previous pension plan, or after three month’s tenure if they do have a previous pension plan – in which case its retroactive to the employee’s start date.

6. The more you are transparent with your payslips: itemizing each payment separately and clearly it will be easier understood and avoid any unnecessary disagreemtns and future lawsuits.

Israpay has over 20 years experience in implementation, setup and fine-tuning payroll programs and we will be happy to assist you in ensuring you comply with all the labor laws, regulations and statuary instructions. Get in touch today and see how we can help you save time and money !

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

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”

Before you apply for a job – must read !!!!

You decide to apply for a job, or better yet, you applied and were invited to an job interview. Wait a second, not so fast !!!
The Ministry of Labor and social affairs within the Ministry of Economics has a list of employers that you are not going to want to miss reading prior to applying for a job with one of them.
This list is a list of offenders of labor laws that were fined by the department of regulation, who do spot checks on employers as well as acting on tips and complaints from the general public.
The full list can be seen here:
http://www.economy.gov.il/Employment/WorkRights/WorkRightsEnforcement/FinancialSanctions/Pages/default.aspx

Employee’s Rights Handbook

The “Employee’s Rights Handbook”

The first comprehensive, English language guide to Israeli payroll.
Whether  you are an employer or an employee, a new oleh or an English speaker who has trouble with the Hebrew terms, this publication is for you!

 

Employees:

Understand the terminology, layout and the Hebrew terms on your payslip

Know your rights

Understand the labor laws

What mandatory things need to be itemized on the payslip?

What are the things you need to know upon termination?

How many vacation days are you entitled to?

Is Purim a paid holiday?

What are the rights of a pregnant employee?

 

Employers:

Do your payslips comply with all the new regulations?

Do you issue employees “notification of terms of employment” as required?

Are employees given a fair hearing prior to termination?

Understand what obligatory payments exist in Israel

What is allowed to be deducted from an employee’s salary?

Is an employee who is on maternity leave allowed to work from home?

Must I pay travel expenses to all employees?

What can and cannot be deducted from an employer’s salary?

Are you aware of penalties for infringement on regulations and labor laws? (avoid this by knowing what needs to be done)

 

In this guide you will find:
* An overview of labor laws, regulations, expanded regulation orders, collective
agreements and statutes

* The make-up of the Israeli payslip

* Social Security

* Health Insurance
* Income tax

* Holiday pay, sick day payment, vacation, overtime payment, bereavement leave,
maternity leave

* Minimum wage

* Youth employment
* Advance notice

  • Tips             And much more!

 

A must for employers and employees alike. Get your copy today! This 107 page publication in hard-copy is not available in stores OR Anywhere else, get your copy today !

Price: 100 sh

For orders please go to: Order Here and fill out your details. You will receive an E-invoice for payment after which your book will be mailed to you. Self pickup is available in Jerusalem: Please state if you are interested in this option.Employee's Rights Handbook

Updated Min. wage for youth – Apr 2015

On April 1, 2015 the minimum wage in Israel was updated. This has implications on min. wage for youth, as well.

The new rates are as follows:

Age                               Monthly Rate            Hourly Rate    

up to 16                        3,255 sh                                18.81 sh

up to 17                        3,487.50 sh                           20.15 sh

up to 18                        3,859.50 sh                          22.30 sh

18 +                               4,650 sh                               25 sh

 

There are other restrictions that apply to youth employment, such as max. number of hours pre day and per week, disallowing overtime and night work.

 

Announcing “Employee’s Rights Handbook” book launch and lectures

Book launch and lecture will be held:

In Jerusalem: on May 19th, 2015  19:00  at AACI Jerusalem, The Glassman family center Pierre Keonig st. corner of 2 Poalei Tzedek st., 4th floor (opposite Hadar mall)

In Tel-Aviv: on June 17th, 2015 16:00 at AACI Tel-Aviv, 94 A Allenby st.

 

The “Employee’s Rights Handbook”

The first comprehensive, English language guide to Israeli payroll.
Whether  you are an employer or an employee, a new oleh or an English speaker who has trouble with the Hebrew terms, this publication is for you!

 

Employees:

Understand the terminology, layout and Hebrew on your payslip

Know your rights

Understand the labor laws

What needs to be itemized on the payslip?

What are the things you need to know upon termination?

How many vacation days are you entitled to?

Is Purim a paid holiday?

What are the rights of a pregnant employee?

 

Employers:

Do your payslips comply with all the new regulations?

Do you issue employees “notification of terms of employment” as required?

Are employees given a fair hearing prior to termination?

Understand what obligatory payments exist in Israel

What is allowed to be deducted from an employee’s salary

Are you aware of penalties for infringement on regulations and labor laws? (avoid this by knowing what needs to be done)

 

In this guide you will find:
* An overview of labor laws, regulations, expanded regulation orders, collective
agreements and statutes

* The make-up of the Israeli payslip

* Social Security

* Health Insurance
* Income tax

* Holiday pay, sick day payment, vacation, overtime payment, bereavement leave,
maternity leave

* Minimum wage

* Youth employment
* Advance notice                       And much more!

 

A must for employers and employees alike. Get your copy today! This 107 page publication in hard-copy is not available in stores, on-line orders:

 

http://www.israpay.com/announcing-the-release-date-for-employees-rights-handbook/

Sick leave during advance notice period

Scenario: Employer notifies employee of termination or employee notifies employer of resignation

Fact: During this period the employee is required to work, unless waived by the employer

 

Question: what happens when the employee is sick and procures a doctor’s note ?

Answer:

If an employee is sick during advance notice period and produces a doctor’s sick note to the employer, he is eligible for sick pay, according to the sick day law and contingent on his accumulated sick day balance.

The advance notice period is a work period for all intent and purposes, employer-employee relations still exist, for better and for worse.

This is true when the employer has given notice before termination and when an employee has given notice before resignation.

The date of termination or resignation and end of employer-employee relations remain the same as it originally was written in the advance notification and is not pushed back due to the sick days.

Is an employer required to give holiday gifts to his employees ?

There is no directive or law that makes holiday gifts to employees mandatory. It is however, a nice gesture and one usually well appreciated by employees. The right of employees to a holiday gift may be embedded in an individual work contract or a collective work agreement, an expanded regulation order based on a collective agreement or common practice in the past in the place of work. In any of these cases, the employer would be bound to the agreement.
In the public sector, this is specified in the collective work agreement.

If an employer does give employees holiday gifts, with regard to eligibility of employees who are currently on non-paid leave, maternity leave, etc, if it is common practice at the palce of work, it is the employer’s discretion whether to give employees currently not receiving pay or not and how much.

Some employers give permanant employees one gift and a lesser gift to part-time or temp employees.

With regard to taxes; section 2 (2) of the Income Tax Order specifies that “any benefit given to an employee by an employer, whether money or value of money (coupons, actual gifts), whether directly given or indirectly given, are considered taxable income”. The result is that gifts, or their actual worth, are taxable  (income tax, social security and health tax) and they need to be separately itemized on the payslip. Most employers will pick up the tab on the taxes (although it is not mandatory), as it’s not the employee’s fault that the employer decides to give him a gift. That basically means that if the employer gives say 350 sh in coupons, he would add a separate item on the payslip for 350 sh net, the taxes would be deducted but the employee’s net pay would not be efeected due to the gift.

gift

Announcing the release date for Employee’s Rights Handbook !!!!

Finally, the long awaited Employee’s Rights Book is to be released in Hard copy. The release date is Sunday March 15, 2015

At present, this is the only format. There may be a PDF purchase option at a later date.

The book is 107 pages of vital information for employers, employees and anyone interested in Employee’s rights, labor laws and the makeup of payroll in Israel.

Announcing the first and only English language guide in simple easy to understand language !!!

The Book also contains a dictionary of common Hebrew payroll terms and their English translation, examples of payroll forms, useful contact information, tips and more.

Get your copy today,  and know your rights !

price: 100 sh (including mailing). Optional self-pickup in Jerusalem (85 sh).
Payment via credit card or paypal, use this link:

<a href=”http://www.vcita.com/v/israpay/make_payment?pay_for=Employee’s%20Rights%20Handbook&amount=100″ target=”blank”>pay</a>

or follow the schedule an appointment on the left hand side of the home page of this site.
If you encounter a scheduling error notice, send the following details:
(Name, mailing address, email address, phone/cell number. If you wish that the invoice be made out to a different name than the one you supplied, please state)
to moshe.israpay@gmail.com and An invoice will be emailed to you. When you open the invoice you will have the ability to pay.

Check payments option:  send a check made payable to Moshe Egel-Tal along with the above info to

Israpay
P.O. Box 44429
Jerusalem 9144302