“Sometimes I sit with friends at social gatherings, or even in a neighborhood café, and they come up to me with questions about workplace rights,” says Hadera Zirai, one of the 20 young men and women who participated in “Kav LaOved”’s training in October 2023.
“For example, if they think that their employer paid them only half of the compensation they are owed, I check “Kav LaOved’s calculator” and explain to them whether the employer owes them… And if I’m not sure about the answer, I turn to Lior [Malka], and she explains it to me.”
Lior Malka, Director of the Department of Asylum Seekers and Refugees at “Kav LaOved”, together with Daniel Freund a long-time volunteer at the organization and Orit Ronen who works at Kav LaOved and is also a lawyer, created and delivered the first-of-its-kind training for young people on workplace rights. Currently, several months after the training was completed, Malka and the team have seen an increase in inquiries about employment rights, thus reflecting the growing awareness and ability of young people to stand up for their rights.
“This is what the power- gap looks like,” Kav LaOved explains, “The purpose of the training was to help the participants gain a little more power, to know how to search for the information and to try to reconcile, even if only slightly, the power gap between the employer and employee.”
Arsema Teame is a first-year student at the Open University for Political Science and International Relations, but when she read her pay check, she felt out of her depth.
“I try to read my payslip and I don’t understand anything, and I don’t have a language barrier,” says Teama, who was born in Eritrea and came to Israel at the age of eight as an asylum seeker. Teama, who graduated from an Israeli high-school and now works for Human Rights organizations, felt the training was necessary not only for her generation, but to be able to help her parents. “At home, my father asked me to read his payslip, he said, ‘You’re in university, how do you not understand that?’ He didn’t study, so he thinks studying covers everything. It’s not something you are taught in school.”
Hadera Zirai, who works at the Refugee Aid organization ASSAF as reception manager, also came from Eritrea more than 15 years ago and shares a similar experience. “I’ve worked in many places, hotels, factories, refugee-rights organizations, and I’ve never been too concerned about my workplace rights… Some of the things I knew because of my line of work and from inquiries I encountered over the years. But reading a payslip, and what to look for in it, I was never able to do.”
Lior Malka, at “Kav LaOved”‘s reception. Photo: Kav LaOved
“Kav LaOved”, an NGO that has been working for more than 30 years to promote the rights of all workers in the Israeli economy, was aware of the vulnerability of asylum-seekers as workers and the issue of inaccessibility. Malka and her team sought to change this exact situation and help Zirai and thousands of asylum seekers from Sudan and Eritrea who are in a similar situation due to their temporary status and language gaps.
Daniel Freund shares how the training for the refugee community came about. “The number of inquiries we receive is greater than the resources we have. At the same time, most of the refugee community that comes to our department has been in Israel for many years, some over 10 and in some cases even 20 years in Israel. This means that many of the applicants have the ability to talk to their employer and contact them themselves, but they lack the knowledge and experience we have.”
Hagos Okbamariam, a participant in the course, shared that one of the reasons for the timing of the course is that the community is ready for the next step: “In the beginning, when we came to Israel, language was a barrier for our community. Today, 15 years later, we have overcome this obstacle and it is time for us to know our rights in the workplace.”
The participants, who numbered from 12 at the beginning of the course to 20 young men and women by the end, became familiar with the rights they are entitled to (like any Israeli worker) in the Israeli labor market and the relevant clauses for asylum-seeking and refugee workers.
“Today I can read my payslip… for the first time I’m not ashamed or afraid. Today, when I talk about wages, I do it from a place of knowledge and power. The course really improved my confidence.”
The course also included general information and knowledge of the rights and emphasized the skills which asylum seekers can utilize to access these rights; ranging from issues of how to talk to the employer, how to prepare for negotiations with the employer, and when to stop acting independently and seek (and choose) legal aid.
Since completing the course, Freund has seen the ripple effect within the community, especially for participants who joined from the city of Eilat. Due to the unique situation of the community there, most of the asylum-seekers work in the hotel industry and, as Freund explains, if one person manages to read their pay slip, then immediately the question or answer becomes that of a group of workers.
A paycheck guide and translated payslip. Credit: Kav LaOved
“In the days following the training, and to this day, I receive questions and consultations from participants about one’s payslip, or for their husband’s, or her friend’s,” Freund says. “If someone can identify something on her own pay slip, then they understand that it can be applied to the other members of the community who work in a similar job.”
The geographical distance between Eilat and the centre of the country, and from the accessible services in Tel Aviv is another challenge for the community of over a thousand asylum seekers in Eilat. Making the information accessible to the seven participants from the southern city was also a significant step in terms of bringing the periphery closer to the center. “The platform of the course made it possible to be in touch, build trust and have a direct line of communication to “Kav LaOved” and these participants have now become some kind of messengers or ambassadors. Because if they don’t know, they have an open channel of communication and that is one clear outcome of the course.” According to Freund.
The course consisted of six sessions during which participants became familiar with basic concepts such as deposit, minimum wage, base wage and overtime, recuperation and pension pay, wage violations, medical insurance, withholding wages, sick days, vacation days, social security, and more. In addition to getting acquainted with the theory, participants were invited to raise individual cases and analyse their own pay slips, notice the various distributions, and raise questions. In the last session, they participated in “Kav LaOved” reception hour and helped mediate and answer questions from other members of the community.
Another accomplishment noted by Malka is that “the payslip, that usually stays unopened, is now already being opened and even read.” Being able to read and understand the payslip has far-reaching positive results.
Teama agrees: “Today I can read my payslip… for the first time I’m not ashamed or afraid. Today, when I talk about wages, I do it from a place of knowledge and power. The course really improved my confidence.”
Another meeting dealt with the unusual employment structure of delivery company “Wolt”, which employs many asylum seekers. “Kav LaOved” spot-lighted this model to enable people to make calculated decisions if they choose to be employed there. “Specifically for asylum seekers, there are significant violations that we have seen with people coming forward to share, mainly with their unique deposit fees.” Malka shares.
According to Israel’s “Deposit law”, an employer of a foreign worker who is an asylum seeker is obliged to set aside 16% of the worker’s salary for a monthly deposit, starting from the first day of work.
“We always offer information about their rights, but people end up making the decision of what is more worthwhile for them and not everyone can afford to not work for Wolt.” Malka says. “Sometimes it the lesser of two evils, and we hope that in the future this will change and that those who want to employ people in Israel will do so legally.”
The goal of training, as designed by “Kav LaOved” went far beyond imparting knowledge. “One of the objectives of this course is also to enable critical and independent thinking,” Malka says. “To use the knowledge, to become familiar with Israeli Labor laws, know what is reasonable and what is not, to use logic out of understanding – not memorizing – the rights and the law. For example: What basic conditions does a worker need to do his job?”
“I heard participants share stories of employers taking advantage of them because they didn’t know their rights and don’t know how to read,” Teama says. “It was really difficult for me to hear that, I immediately thought of my parents. That was the hardest part for me.”
Participants attest that making information more accessible, such as translating the payslip into Tigrinya together with the hands-on practice and discussions regarding principles at the core of employment rights, was significant and helpful.
“When there is knowledge, it spreads like wildfire, they teach each other and pass on the knowledge and it’s very exciting.”
Some of the most complex issues concern the social-cultural barriers to obtaining workers’ rights, including lack of permanent status, language proficiency, and lack of negotiation experience and confidence. This, compounded with the fact that most asylum seekers are employed in an “indirect” employment model (as contractors and subcontractors) founds the basis of the power gap between the employer, who has nothing to lose, and the worker, who can lose everything. “This is what the power- gap looks like,” Kav LaOved explains, “The purpose of the training was to help the participants gain a little more power, to know how to search for the information and to try to reconcile, even if only slightly, the power gap between the employer and employee.”
דניאל פרוינד, קו לעובד, במפגש של קורס ההכשרה באילת. צילום: קו לעובד Kav LaOved’s Daniel Freund at a training session in Eilat. Photo: Kav LaOved
Despite these challenging circumstances, there are also reasons for optimism as there is but steady advancement in the community that has lived and worked in Israel for almost 20 years.
“Unequivocally, we see a learning curve and we know how to classify it according to areas of work as well – for example, in the field of cleaning there is an extension order that gives more rights to cleaning workers, in the past they didn’t know about it and today they know how to demand, for example, that they deserve “recovery fee” from day one,” Malka says. “When there is knowledge, it spreads like wildfire, they teach each other and pass on the knowledge and it’s very exciting.”
Alongside “Kav LaOved’”s long list of accomplishments, one challenge remains: The method of passing the knowledge to all members of the community, especially those who are not as fluent in Hebrew as the younger generation of asylum-seekers.
“I think we need to train the people who were in the course to continue to pass on the information to the community.” Zirai shares. “
Malka agrees that the course was a significant milestone but not the final stop. The next step for “Kav LaOved” is to replicate the knowledge centres and empower the community to deal with the issue even before the violations reach their desk: “We hope to create a leadership group from within the community, perhaps from the graduates of the course and people who hold the subject close to their hearts, so that they act as extensions of “Kav LaOved” within the community and will know how to identify cases of rights violations and will be a source of knowledge.” She adds, “The second stage is to know how to handle these cases at the community level, whether in Tigrinya or in Hebrew, without the need for our mediation and according to a high professional standard. That is the dream, we still have a way to go.”
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter
