Report: Foreigners denied minimum wage
Worker's Hotline report paints grim picture of treatment of foreign workers, mainly Thai, employed in agriculture field. Some 90% work beyond permitted hours but denied overtime payment. Further rights violations include poor living conditions, withholding of vacations, passports
More than 90% of foreigners employed in the agricultural field work for more hours than permitted by law and are not fully rewarded for the overtime. Some 70% of those earn less than the minimum wage, a report drafted by the Worker's Hotline organization which will be presented to the Knesset on Wednesday indicates.
The findings are based on an analysis of hundreds of complaints with the organization and dozens of visits held by it activists in the relevant areas.
The report claims that some 30,000 working immigrants are currently employed in the field of agriculture, mostly from Thailand and a small percent from Nepal, Sri-Lanka and the Palestinian Authority. It is further claimed that between January and August of 2009 the agricultural export amounted to some $587 million in proceeds – a 28% rise compared to the same period last year.
The report also indicates that Thai workers arrive in Israel from rural areas in their country after having paid Thai and Israeli middlemen an average of NIS 8000 (roughly $2150) in commission.
The report further describes the workers' poor living conditions, as well as the revoking of vacations and passport delay by the employers. Since the beginning of 2009 some 10% of agriculture workers, 2,950 people, were injured during accidents at work.
It is further claimed that there is a trend of trading in workers within the field. "Workers who want to leave their jobs following wages being held back, sanitary and safety issues and unfit living conditions are helpless to improve their positions. In light of the financial interest serving both the employers and the employment bureaus, these two elements join forces in keeping the workers quiet," the report stated.
'Employees suffer poor conditions, no overtime payment' (Photo: AP)
Members of the Worker's Hotline asserted that the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor, which is responsible for disciplining lawbreaking employers, does not employ professional and impartial Thai translators and therefore cannot be fully and accurately informed of the violations.
'Aggressiveness used against workers'
Hana Zohar, chairman of the organization said, "The aggressiveness in which the farmers behave in order to get more employees is the same one they use against the workers: holding back wages, failure to meet minimum wage, and most seriously jeopardizing the lives of the workers by employing them in crop dusting activities in an uncontrolled manner."
Zohar numbered several steps that should be taken in order to resolve the situation, including conditioning the issuing of import licenses to famers with upholding workers rights, cancelling employment permits to lawbreakers, informing the workers of their rights and increasing enforcement.
She further recommended that the law authorities create a hotline for working immigrants where they could communicate in their own language.
Israeli Farmers Association Secretary-General and former Knesset Member Avshalom Vilan (Meretz) said in response to the report, "We will not back lawbreakers. We are in favor of minimum wage and overtime and when employers fail to meet the conditions they should be prosecuted. "
He further noted, "It is possible that these are esoteric phenomenons in the agriculture field. We can't have a 100% control on the matter. This may exist in the grey areas...everything is known and open in the agriculture field but in those places in which farmers misbehave – they should be treated in a serious manner."
