Observación (CEACR) - Adopción: 2024, Publicación: 113ª reunión CIT (2025)

Convenio sobre las cláusulas de trabajo (contratos celebrados por las autoridades públicas), 1949 (núm. 94) - Israel (Ratificación : 1953)

Article 2 of the Convention. Inclusion of labour clauses and application of the Convention in practice. Responding to the previous comments of the Committee, the Government continues to refer to the Public Bodies Transaction Law 1976, the Mandatory Tenders Law 1992, the Mandatory Tenders Regulations 1993, and the Financial and Economic Regulations (Takam), as the legislation implementing the Convention. It also indicates the adoption of Regulations for the Increase of the Enforcement of Labour Laws, including: (i) Regulation No. 5783/2023 on wage components comprising contract workers’ hourly wages, in force since 1 January 2024, which imposes obligations on service recipients and service contractors in the cleaning, catering and security guard sectors to ensure the payment of the minimum hourly wage to service contractors’ employees; and (ii) Regulation No. 5777/2017 on certified wage inspectors, signed on 9 July 2017, which provides that service recipients who conduct periodic inspections through wage inspectors may be protected from prosecution. Furthermore, the Government states that, pursuant to the Law for Increased Enforcement of Labour Laws, No. 5772/2011, the Accountant General’s Division at the Ministry of Finance has been operating, since 2012, the system that centralizes audits of direct contracts between government ministries and service providers that provide services in the cleaning, catering and security guard sectors. Each service provider, after the audit, receives a score reflecting its compliance with labour laws, which accounts for 40 per cent of the overall score in the evaluation of its bid in government tenders. Lastly, the Government reports that, in December 2012, the Minister of Finance and the Chairman of the New General Federation of Labour signed a collective agreement with the aim of improving the wages and employment conditions of workers employed by providers of cleaning, catering and security guard services.

While noting this information, the Committee once again observes with regret that the public procurement legislation referred to by the Government only partially ensures application of the basic requirements of the Convention. It therefore once again recalls that the Convention applies to all public contracts involving the expenditure of funds by a public authority and the employment of workers by the other party to the contract, and includes contracts for construction, manufacture of goods, or supply of services. Moreover, the Convention calls for bidders to be informed in advance by means of standard labour clauses included in tender documents that, if selected, they would be required to apply, under the contract, wages and working conditions (including but not limited to working hours) not less favourable than the highest minimum standards established locally by law, arbitration or collective agreement, particularly given that in many cases minimum standards set by national legislation regarding wages and conditions of work may be exceeded under collective agreements. The Committee observes that no progress has been made with regard to the implementation of the Convention in either law or practice. Moreover, the legislation concerning the protection of rights of workers employed by service contractors in the cleaning, catering and security guard sectors, as referenced in the Government’s report, is not comprehensive in scope and does not fully reflect the core requirement of Article 2 of the Convention on the inclusion of labour clauses in public contracts. The Committee once again draws the Government’s attention to its 2008 General Survey on labour clauses in public contracts, paragraph 40, which states that the essential purpose of the Convention is to ensure that the workers employed by a contractor and paid indirectly out of public funds enjoy wages and conditions of labour which are at least as satisfactory as the wages and conditions of labour normally established for the type of work concerned, whether they are established by collective agreement or otherwise, in the locality where the work is done. Recalling that it has been highlighting the need to give full effect to the core requirements of the Convention for many years, the Committee hopes that the Government will take all necessary measures without further delay to bring the national legislation and practice into conformity with the Convention. The Committee once again requests the Government to provide all available information on the practical application of the Convention, including statistical information on the number and nature of public contracts established by different public bodies, samples of public contracts or standard contract forms, and extracts from reports of the inspection services showing the number and nature of any infringements detected and sanctions imposed. It also requests the Government to provide copies of official publications or studies on matters relevant to the Convention, such as reports of the activities of the Industrial Cooperation Authority (ICA), the enforcement agency under the public procurement legislation.