workers' struggles

Antiquities Authority sued for contempt of court

Authority ignored ruling that demanded it employ workers directly instead of via manpower agencies

On 18.7 the Workers Advice Center (WAC) submitted a request for a contempt of court order against the Israel Antiquities Authority after it ignored a Jerusalem Labor Court ruling from last March. According to the ruling, the Antiquities Authority must employ directly (instead of via manpower agencies) all archeological site workers who have worked for nine months.

On the 18.7 the Jerusalem Labor Court was witness to an unusual scene when Att. Bassam Karkabi submitted a request for a contempt of court order against the Antiquities Authority. It is not every day that the Authority, a public body financed by public funds purportedly working towards social and cultural objectives, is accused of contempt of the state's laws and institutions.

The request to declare the Authority as being in contempt of court and failing to meet its legal obligations was submitted after it had ignored the court's ruling for five months. The ruling, from Judge Daniel Goldberg, demanded that the Authority take on 21 workers from Jerusalem as regular workers employed directly.

Goldberg's in-depth ruling from 3.3.10 set a precedent. According to the amendment to the Employment of Employees by Manpower Contractors Law 5756-1996, paragraph 12A, the 21 workers who were employed via the manpower agency Brik must be taken on by the Authority as regular workers because they have completed at least nine months employment with the Authority.

Since the ruling in March, WAC, the organization behind the workers, has suggested to the Authority's General Manager Mr. Shuka Dorfman that it assists in implementing the court's ruling. However, its contacts with the Authority, including a meeting in May 2010, led to naught and WAC was left with no choice but to return to the court.

The Authority's failure to respect the court's ruling is part of a series of workers' rights violations by the Authority. The claimants in this case are all hard-working residents of East Jerusalem employed for many years by the Authority. Despite long periods of employment, they were never employed directly by the Authority but via a manpower agency, Brik. This enabled a high turnover of workers, thus preventing the workers from becoming eligible for social benefits even though they had worked for years.

It should be noted that this ruling on the subject of employment via manpower agencies is very significant for thousands of cleaners and others who work in various forms of substandard employment frameworks. Some 10% of all workers in Israel are employed via manpower agencies. Paragraph 12A gives these workers some hope. We must hope that the court will compel the Antiquities Authority to fulfill its obligations for the sake of the workers and thousands of others working under similar terms.