Israel accused of violating global labor laws by withholding pay from Palestinian workers | Israel

Ten unions have accused Israel of violating international labor law by denying wages and benefits to more than 200,000 Palestinian workers since October 7.

The Israeli government is accused of “flagrant” violations of the International Labor Organization (ILO) Wage Protection Convention, which plunged many Palestinians into extreme poverty.

Workers from Gaza and the West Bank employed in Israel were not paid for work completed before last October – when Hamas militants led an attack that killed nearly 1,200 people in southern Israel – and have, according to the complaint have not received any wages since then. The attack triggered an Israeli assault on Gaza that killed more than 41,000 Palestinians and devastated large swathes of the territory.

A complaint filed on Friday aims to recover the wages of Palestinian workers who previously worked in Israel.

“Two hundred thousand workers in the West Bank have lost their jobs,” said Assaf Adiv, executive director of the Maan Workers Association, an independent workers organization in Israel. “They received no compensation and have suffered from extreme poverty ever since.

“Thousands of workers who risk entering Israel without authorization face oppression, humiliation and even death. Workers are an important social class in Palestinian society that is peaceful, not affiliated with Hamas and therefore should not be punished.”

According to ILO estimates, the average daily wage for Palestinian workers in Israel was 297.30 shekels (US$79), with the average weekly wage ranging between 2,100 and 2,600 shekels (US$565 to 700).

After the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, Israel revoked the work permits of about 13,000 Palestinian workers from the Gaza Strip to work legally in Israel, a legal statement on the complaint said, leaving those workers with unpaid wages starting in September and October. Normally this wage would have been paid on October 9th.

Another nearly 200,000 Palestinian workers from the West Bank employed in Israel have been denied entry to Israel and have not received termination notices, according to the brief, which argues that they are owed wages for their previous and subsequent work , which are specified in their employment contracts months.

The unions accuse Israel of violating the ILO's Wage Protection Convention, which was ratified by a hundred member states, including Israel, in 1959.

An ILO report in May estimated that Palestinian unemployment has been at an all-time high since October 7. “Economic production losses across the occupied Palestinian territory are estimated at nearly $19 million per day,” it said.

“When the war began, we returned home in the early stages of the conflict. Since then, we have not received salaries or found work,” said Khaled Jamal Muhammad Karkash, a Palestinian worker. “We're trying our best to find something that meets some of our needs. I am the breadwinner of my family. Nobody else works at home.”

Another Palestinian worker, Mahmoud Salhab, also worked in Israel but was not allowed to work since October last year.

“I am the main breadwinner and I have a four-year degree, but I can’t find a job,” Salhab said. “Since the first war, I have only worked four days a month, just enough to cover basic needs such as bread and oil. I was engaged before the war, but now that I haven’t finished building my house, I can’t afford to get married.”

According to the International Labor Organization, more than 500,000 jobs have been lost in Gaza and the West Bank, making the already dire economic situation for Palestinians even worse. In March, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohamed Mustafa claimed that the unemployment rate was 89%.

“When I visited the West Bank earlier this year, I witnessed the economic hardship suffered by the families of Palestinian workers employed in Israel,” said Luc Triangle, general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation. “As always, working people are enduring the worst of the ongoing conflict. With this petition we want to ensure that much-needed back pay is paid to workers who are struggling to make ends meet.”

The unions behind the complaint represent approximately 207 million workers in more than 160 countries. These include the Construction and Wood Workers' International, the Education International, the IndustriAll Global Union, the International Federation of Journalists, the International Federation of Trade Unions, the International Transport Workers' Federation, and the International Food, Agriculture, Hotel, Restaurant and Catering, Tobacco Union. and related workers' associations, Public Services International and UNI Global Union. The trade union advisory council of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development also joined the complaint.