The Workers' Rights Clinic at Tel Aviv University and Kav LaOved petitioned the High Court of Justice on July 17, 2024 on behalf of Kav LaOved, Ma'an and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. The petition deals with the work methods of a new committee – the CEO's Committee on Foreign Workers – which has been granted broad powers to determine fundamental aspects relating to labor migration: allocations, division between industries, methods of recruitment (supervised or private), setting wages for employees, and more.
In the two months that have passed since its establishment, the committee has used the powers granted to it (and which have been greatly expanded through its interpretation of its powers), and has already made decisions that dramatically change the labor market and the world of labor immigration. The number of industries that have opened up to labor migration has almost doubled, a stark change compared to the last 30 years, leaving many questions for the future (how to recruit to these industries, determining the conditions for employers in order to obtain a permit to employ a foreign worker, labor regulation of workers, minimum wage, how they move between employers, and more). Despite the large number of decisions made by the committee and their broad implications, none of its deliberations were opened to the public – including representatives of employers, workers' committees and human rights organizations. The committee's agenda is not published, and no one knows what issues they discuss or when.
In the petition, the organizations demand that the committee's decisions be made after public participation, or that the committee publish its agenda and recommendations before discussing them. In addition, the organizations demand that work arrangements be set up for the committee's activities and that the minutes of its deliberations be published.
HCJ 5879/24 Kav LaOved v. CEOs Committee on Foreign Workers
Attorney: Michal Tagger (Workers' Rights Clinic), Elad Kahane (Kav LaOved)
The petition, July 17, 2024 (Hebrew)