Observation (CEACR) - adoptée 2024, publiée 113ème session CIT (2025)

Convention (n° 181) sur les agences d'emploi privées, 1997 - Israël (Ratification: 2012)

Article 7 of the Convention. Fees and costs charged to migrant workers by private employment agencies. The Committee observed previously that exceptions to the prohibition of charging fees to workers were provided by the national legislation, and requested the Government to submit information on the practical application of these legislative provisions. The Government indicates that it examined the amount of allowable brokerage fees that private employment agencies could collect from foreign workers in the live-in care industry for the costs associated with their recruitment and placement with the employer and for the ongoing services provided to them after their arrival and throughout their employment in Israel. Following this examination, the Employment Service (Payment from an Employment Applicant in Connection with Employment Brokerage) Regulations, 5766-2006, were amended in 2022. According to the amendment, private employment agencies that are licensed for the recruitment of foreign caregivers can receive a fee from caregivers recruited abroad. The regulations were approved as an interim order for three years, until October 2025, in order to allow for the arrangement to be reviewed with the relevant government ministries that must report to the Israeli Parliament at the end of each year regarding the implementation thereof. The Committee notes that, in accordance with the Employment Service Regulations, 5782-2022, upon first entry into Israel, an amount equal to 3,419.45 Israeli shekels can be collected from a foreign worker in the home-based caregiving sector by a private employment agency, 900.13 shekels can be collected after a total of 26 months from the day of entry into Israel, and 900.13 shekels after a total of 36 months from the date of entry into Israel, for a total of 5,219.71 shekels (approximately US$1,400), an amount to which the applicable 17 per cent taxes are also added. In this respect, the Committee noted in its last comments that the maximum contractual payment that could previously be collected directly or indirectly from a worker by a private employment agency was 3,688.57 shekels. The Committee recalls the general principle of the Convention, which calls for private employment agencies not to charge directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, any fees or costs to workers. The Committee recalls that the Convention allows the competent authority to charge certain fees to workers only if they are “in the interest of the workers concerned” and “after consulting the most representative organizations of employers and workers”. Accordingly, the Committee requests the Government to provide detailed information on how the fees imposed on foreign workers in the home-based caregiving sector serve the workers’ interests and to specify the types of services provided in exchange. Additionally, given the significant increase in the total fees that may be collected from this category of foreign workers (roughly 40 per cent of the amount noted by the Committee in its last comments), the Committee asks the Government to explain the reasons for such an increase and to clarify what these fees represent as a proportion of the average earnings of foreign caregivers working in Israel. The Committee also requests the Government to provide details on the consultations held with the most representative organizations of employers and workers regarding fees charged by private employment agencies to foreign caregivers. Lastly, the Committee requests the Government to provide updated information on the annual review of the interim arrangement by the relevant ministries and Parliament.

Article 8. Migrant workers. In its previous comments, the Committee requested the Government to continue to provide information on the impact of the measures taken to provide adequate protection for and prevent abuses of migrant workers recruited or placed in Israel by private employment agencies. The Committee notes that the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), in its 2019 concluding observations on the fourth periodic report of Israel, while noting that in Israel 58 per cent of migrant workers, most of them women, are employed as caregivers on a live-in basis, expressed concern over the fact that these workers are excluded from the applicability of the Hours of Work and Rest Law of 1951 and that their working conditions are not effectively monitored by the labour authorities. While noting that Israel has concluded bilateral agreements with some of the countries of origin of migrant workers to protect their rights, the CESCR expressed concern that workers from countries that do not have a bilateral agreement with Israel may be at risk of exploitation and abuse (E/C.12/ISR/CO/4, paragraph 28). The Committee also notes that the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), in its 2020 concluding observations on the combined seventeenth to nineteenth reports of Israel, noted that people belonging to minority groups, including migrants, may face obstacles in accessing justice while seeking remedies for cases of discrimination (CERD/C/ISR/CO/17-19, paragraph 19). The Government indicates that it continues to require and sign bilateral agreements with countries of origin of foreign workers permitted to enter Israel for temporary work in the various sectors in which employment of foreign workers has traditionally been permitted, such as the agriculture, construction and live-in caregiving sectors, as well as new sectors, such as the hotel and long-term care facilities sectors. The Government adds that bilateral agreements and their implementation protocols set out detailed recruitment processes to ensure that workers receive clear information concerning their rights and obligations in Israel, including the permitted recruitment fees, contact information of a call centre for complaints and queries, and a standard employment contract in three languages (Hebrew, English and the worker’s language). In terms of the practical application of the provisions regarding fees, the Government indicates that, when the permitted fees are collected in the framework of a bilateral agreement, both the sending country representatives and Israel’s representatives supervise the transfer of the permitted fees to ensure that the amounts transferred from abroad do not exceed what is permitted. The Government further indicates that additional enforcement measures exist for foreign workers. In 2022, the Regularization and Enforcement Administration at the Ministry of Labour took the following actions: 415 investigation files were opened against employers of foreign workers for violating labour rights; 399 administrative notices were given before fines in order to allow employers to correct the violations; 18 proactive inspections were carried out in foreign construction companies. Moreover, financial sanctions in the amount of 7,130,758 shekels were issued against employers of foreign workers, and two criminal indictments were filed against employers of foreign workers. In the first half of 2023, the Population and Immigration Authority carried out 26 administrative procedures concerning complaints received or allegations of abuses by private employment agencies licensed to recruit foreign workers in the live-in caregiving sector.

The Committee wishes to recall that, according to Article 8 of the Convention, Members are required to adopt all necessary and appropriate measures, both within their jurisdictions and, where appropriate, in collaboration with other Members, to provide adequate protection for and prevent abuses of migrant workers recruited or placed in their territories by private employment agencies. These shall include laws or regulations which provide for penalties, including prohibition of those private employment agencies which engage in fraudulent practices and abuses. The Committee observes that, while foreign workers covered by bilateral labour agreements do seem to benefit from certain protections, it appears that those originating from countries where such agreements do not exist are excluded from the application of the Hours of Work and Rest Law of 1951. The Committee therefore requests the Government to indicate how it ensures that the workers who are not covered by a bilateral labour agreement signed by Israel and their country of origin are provided with adequate protection and covered by measures aimed at preventing abuses, and to indicate the applicable normative texts. It also asks the Government to continue to provide updated information on the sanctions, including fines, imposed on private employment agencies which engage in fraudulent practices and abuses of migrant workers. The Committee also requests the Government to provide detailed information on the existing bilateral labour agreements, and those that are in negotiation, as well as the type of protections against abuses contained therein.

The Committee also refers to its comments made in 2020 under the Migration for Employment Convention (Revised), 1949 (No. 97).

The Committee is raising other matters in a request addressed directly to the Government.