According to the authorities, they began receiving complaints from foreign workers in Israel on an expert visa shortly after their arrival in the country. These experts, after paying fees extremely high placement fees through a series of middlemen, were not receiving their wages from their employers as promised. These complaints led to an investigation on the subject by PIBA, where it was discovered that in fact, these experts face multiple violations of their rights in Israel.
Kav LaOved responded: “Collecting an astronomical brokerage fee for the right to work in Israel, as well as fictitious contracts, are phenomena that are well known to the state authorities. Not for nothing, the government has made the decision to only employ migrant workers in the construction and agricultural sectors through bilateral agreements which include direct state supervision in the hiring and placement processes.
It seems that in the case of the migrant workers employed as welders, PIBA has learned that using the expert visa was simply a pretext to circumvent the obligation to bring migrant workers for the construction industry only through established bilateral agreements. We should welcome the enforcement of workers’ rights, even if done after the fact. This will not heal the damage already done to workers, but hopefully, raising awareness of these cases of exploitation will discourage the government from allowing employers to bring migrant workers without the protective framework offered by bilateral agreements.
Read the full article in Hebrew by Janaan Bsoul in TheMarker, “Due to the Infringement of Migrant Workers’ Rights: PIBA Will Foreclose an Employer Guaranty of 450 Thousand NIS”
