Israeli Workplace Rights Navigator

Israeli Workplace Rights Navigator

Legal notice

This is a free information tool operated by an AI model. It explains the law and the procedure and helps you organise your own documents. All of its outputs are produced automatically by an AI model, with no involvement, review, or approval by an advocate. The output is not legal advice and not a legal opinion, but a general explanation and a template only: it does not read the full file of your matter, does not check current case law, and does not examine your specific circumstances. An AI model may err, omit data, or present a wrong conclusion.

Any text this tool drafts is an automatic draft for your personal preparation only. It is not a document prepared by an advocate and must not be relied on as evidence. This tool is not a substitute for advice that takes account of the particular circumstances and needs of each person. Before starting proceedings, signing a document, or filing with an authority or a court, consult an advocate. All use of its output is the user's sole responsibility.

Understand and exercise employee rights under Israeli labor law: vacation, sick leave, overtime, birth and parenting leave, severance, convalescence pay, pension, termination protections, harassment prevention, and disability accommodations.

Instructions

Step 1: Identify the Employee's Situation

Before providing guidance, determine the employee's circumstances:

All entitlements below are minimum legal requirements. Collective agreements (heskemim kibbutziyim) or individual contracts may provide better terms but can never reduce statutory minimums.

Step 2: Vacation Days (Chofsha Shnatit)

Per the Annual Leave Law, 1951 (Chok Chufsha Shnatit), every employee is entitled to paid vacation based on seniority. The statutory table counts calendar days (including weekly rest days); for a 5-day work week the "net" figure is the actual working days of absence:

Key rules:

• Gross days include Fridays and Saturdays (weekly rest). For a 5-day work week, count only the working-day column (net) when scheduling actual time off
• Part-time employees earn vacation proportionally based on actual days worked in the year
• Unused vacation days can carry forward with employer consent, typically over the next two years of employment; beyond that the employer may require the employee to use them
• The employer sets the vacation schedule but must consider the employee's requests. The employee must receive at least 7 consecutive days per year if requested
• Collective agreements (heskemim kibbutziyim) in sectors and many individual contracts grant more generous leave than the table above

Vacation pay:

• The employee receives their regular salary during vacation
• Unused vacation days must be paid out (pidyon chufsha) upon termination

Emergency and reserve-duty carry-forward is an exception to the employer-consent rule; see the reference file.

Step 3: Sick Leave (Yemei Machala)

Per the Sick Pay Law, 1976 (Chok Dmei Machala), employees accrue sick days and receive graduated pay:

Accrual:

• 1.5 sick days per month of employment (18 days per year)
• Maximum accumulation: 90 days total (unless a collective agreement provides more)

Pay during sick leave:

Key rules:

• A medical certificate (ishur machala) is required from the first day of absence
• Sick days can be used for the employee's own illness or a child's illness. The child-illness quota is up to 8 days per year for a child under 16, and it is PER PARENT, not per child: a parent of five children still has 8 days, and the quota does not scale with part-time hours. The second parent has their own quota only where they also work AND did not take leave for the child on the same days, so do not promise a household 8 + 8. Where the child has a serious illness or a permanent disability the quota is 18 days per year, not 8
• An employer cannot fire an employee during sick leave for the first 90 days of accumulated sick days
• Unused sick days are not paid out upon termination (unless a specific agreement states otherwise)

A short absence may be covered by an HMO short sick certificate, no doctor's visit; see the reference file.

Step 4: Overtime Pay (Shaat Nosafot)

Per the Hours of Work and Rest Law, 1951 (Chok Sha'ot Avoda U'Menucha):

Standard work hours:

• Maximum regular work day: 8 hours (or as defined by collective agreement)
• Maximum work week: 42 hours
• Weekly rest day: at least 36 consecutive hours (typically Friday evening to Saturday evening for Jewish employees)

Overtime rates:

Key rules:

• Rest-day and overtime premiums stack on the ordinary wage, capped at 200%, so a long Shabbat shift is never a flat 150%
• Those rest-day rates are the hourly or daily employee's full rate. A monthly salaried employee gets a 50% addition to the daily wage instead, plus paid compensatory rest. Detail in references/entitlements-calculator.md
• Under the general overtime permit of 14 March 2018: no more than 16 overtime hours in a work week
• Total work day, including overtime, cannot exceed 12 hours
• Overtime must be compensated in pay, not comp time (unless a valid collective agreement allows it)
• Certain sectors and positions (managers, those requiring a high degree of personal trust) may be exempt from overtime rules under specific legal conditions
• The employer must keep accurate records of work hours

Minimum wage (Chok Schar Minimum, 1987):

• As of 1 April 2026 the minimum wage is 6,443.85 NIS per month for a full-time position and 35.40 NIS per hour
• The monthly minimum is updated each April; verify the current rate annually
• For part-time employees the hourly minimum applies and the monthly figure is pro-rated
• Employees under 18 and apprentices have their own lower minimum, set as a percentage of the adult monthly figure under the Minimum Wage Regulations (Working Youth and Apprentices), 1987: 70% up to age 16, 75% up to 17, 83% up to 18, and 60% for an apprentice (chanich). A youth full-time week is 40 hours and the youth hourly rate is the youth monthly figure divided by 173, not 182. Shekel figures per band, the birthday-month split and the apprentice definition are in references/entitlements-calculator.md
• Paying below the minimum wage exposes the employer to criminal penalties and civil liability; the floor cannot be waived in a contract

Step 5: Birth and Parenting Period and Paternity Leave (Tkufat Leidah VeHorut)

Per the Employment of Women Law, 1954 (Chok Avdat Nashim). The leave is now officially called the Birth and Parenting Period (tkufat leidah vehorut), not "maternity leave" (chofshat leidah); the older term is still common in everyday speech.

Birth and Parenting Period (the parent who gave birth):

• Total duration: 26 weeks from the date of birth
• Paid portion: 15 weeks of birth allowance (dmei leidah) from Bituach Leumi, on national insurance for at least 10 of the 14 months, or 15 of the 22 months, before the work stoppage
• At least 6 of the 14 months but not enough for the full allowance gives a partial allowance of 56 days (8 weeks)
• The remaining weeks (11 or 18) are unpaid leave
• The daily birth allowance equals the employee's average daily wage, capped at a statutory maximum of NIS 1,752.33 per day in 2026
• The employee can start leave up to 7 weeks before the due date (deducted from the 26 weeks)
• Complex-disability extension (from 1 April 2026): a parent of a child born with a complex disability recognized by Bituach Leumi is entitled to an additional 5 paid weeks. Total extension periods of the birth allowance are capped at 20 weeks combined

Job protection:

• Under the Employment of Women Law s.9(a), from 6 months of tenure the employer cannot dismiss a pregnant employee or cut her position scope without a Ministry of Labor permit, whatever the reason
• Below 6 months no permit is needed, but dismissal because of the pregnancy is still unlawful discrimination under the Equal Employment Opportunities Law and can be challenged on that ground
• No dismissal for 60 days after the Birth and Parenting Period ends, and the employee returns to the same or an equivalent position

Paternity leave / second parent (the parent who did not give birth):

• Up to 5 calendar days right after the birth (plus the birth day), no employer consent needed
• Plus one concurrent week of the Birth and Parenting Period with a birth allowance from Bituach Leumi
• May take a longer transferred share after the other parent has used at least 6 weeks

See references/labor-laws-summary.md for how the 5 days are charged (vacation vs sick) and the full transfer rules.

Additional protections: fertility treatments (absences as sick days, protected from termination), adoption (similar leave entitlements), and nursing mothers (1 hour less per day for 4 months, full pay). Conditions in references/labor-laws-summary.md.

After a miscarriage. The Employment of Women Law protections apply after a miscarriage, not only after a birth, and labour-court authority has held that cutting hours in that protected period breaches the law. Treat a reduction, role change or dismissal in that window as a protected-period breach, not an ordinary management decision.

Step 6: Severance Pay (Pitzuyei Piturim)

Per the Severance Pay Law, 1963 (Chok Pitzuyei Piturim):

Entitlement:

• One month's salary per year of employment (or proportional for partial years)
• Applies after at least 1 year of continuous employment with the same employer
• "Month's salary" means the last monthly salary (maskoret akhronah), including all fixed components

Calculation:

Severance = Last Monthly Salary x Years of Employment

For variable components or salary changes, use:

python3 scripts/severance-calculator.py --help

When severance is owed:

• Employer-initiated termination (piturim)
• Employee resignation due to health, relocation for marriage, or materially worsened conditions. CRITICAL on the last: the employee must FIRST give written notice and a real chance to correct. Resigning without that forfeits the severance entirely (in certain cases recognized by law)
• Death of the employer (individual employer)
• Employer bankruptcy

Section 14 arrangement:

• Section 14 is a prohibition, not a permission: fund contributions replace severance only under a collective agreement or the General Authorization (י"פ תשנ"ח 4394)
• Under this arrangement, the accumulated fund replaces the obligation to pay severance separately
• Two severance rates get confused and the gap is money. The minimum is 6%, and 8.33% (1/12) fully funds the statutory month-per-year, the rate a FULL release requires (from the General Authorization, not Section 14). At 6% the fund covers about 72%, so a completion payment (hashlamat pitzuyim) is owed. Read the deposit rate off the pay slip
• Upon termination, the employee receives the accumulated fund balance as severance

Tax exemption on severance:

• Severance pay is exempt from income tax up to a ceiling per year of tenure. The 2026 ceiling is 13,750 NIS per year of employment (the exempt amount is the lower of this figure times years of service, or 1.5 times the last monthly salary times years of service). Verify the current ceiling, which is updated annually
• Severance above the exemption ceiling is taxable; the employee can request tax-spreading (perisat mas) to reduce the tax

Key rules:

• Severance must be paid within 15 days of termination
• Late payment accrues penalty interest (pitzuyei halanat pitzuyim)
• An employee who resigns is generally not entitled to severance, except in specific circumstances

Severance usually sits in a pension fund; getting it out has its own paperwork chain and an irreversible tax election. Before quoting an amount, walk the termination workflow in the reference file.

Step 7: Convalescence Pay (Dmei Havra'a)

Every employee who has completed at least one year of employment is entitled to annual convalescence pay.

Number of convalescence days by seniority:

Daily rate:

• Updated by extension order. The private-sector rate for havra'a year 2026 (1.7.2025 to 30.6.2026) is NIS 451.5 per day, raised from 418; an employer who paid at 418 owes NIS 33.50 per havra'a day. The rate follows the havra'a year, not the payment date. Public sector: NIS 511.6.
• For 2025 and 2026, employers are required to deduct one convalescence day from each employee's annual entitlement and transfer the equivalent amount to the Tax Authority to fund reservist support

Payment:

• Usually paid once a year, typically in June-September
• Appears as a separate line on the pay slip (tlush maskoret)
• Taxable income but not subject to social security deductions
• Part-time employees receive proportional pay based on their work percentage

Step 8: Pension and Savings (Pnsia)

Since the Mandatory Pension Law extension order (Tzav Harchava, 2008):

Mandatory contribution rates (as of 2026):

Key rules:

• Applies to all employees after 6 months of employment for those without prior pension coverage (contributions are then paid retroactively to day 1), or immediately if the employee already has a pension fund
• The employee chooses the pension fund (keren pensia, bituach menahalim, or kupat gemel)
• Contributions are calculated on the gross salary up to the maximum insurable salary
• An employer who fails to make pension contributions violates the law and faces penalties

Tax benefit on the employee's 6% contribution (Section 45a):

• The employee's 6% pension contribution qualifies for a 35% income-tax credit under Section 45a of the Income Tax Ordinance
• The credit is applied automatically by the payroll system on the pay slip, subject to the annual ceiling (approximately NIS 8,148 in 2026)
• The credit materially lowers the net cost of the employee's pension deduction. If a pay slip shows the full 6% deducted without a matching credit line, the employee may be entitled to a retroactive correction
• Contributions above 7% of salary do not receive the credit and become fully taxable

Step 9: Termination Procedures (Halichei Piturim)

Israeli law requires specific procedures before terminating an employee:

Notice period (hodaa mukdemet):

This is a summary. For the exact month-by-month figures for both monthly-paid and hourly/daily employees, use the detailed table in references/entitlements-calculator.md, which is the authoritative source for notice-period calculations.

Pre-termination hearing (shima):

• The employer must hold a hearing before deciding, after advance written notice stating the reasons under consideration, and must genuinely weigh the employee's answer
• The employee may bring a representative (union rep, lawyer, or colleague). Failure to hold a proper hearing can render the termination unlawful

Protected employees:

• Pregnant women with at least 6 months of tenure: cannot be terminated without a permit from the Ministry of Labor (Employment of Women Law s.9(a)). Below 6 months no permit is needed, but a dismissal because of the pregnancy is still unlawful discrimination
• Employees on sick leave: protected during the first 90 days of accumulated sick leave
• Employees on the Birth and Parenting Period: protected during leave and for 60 days after
• Employees on reserve duty (miluim): protected during the service and 30 days after, for call-ups over 2 consecutive days. Swords of Iron long call-ups extend this to 60 days after, for someone who served at least 60 days in the statutory windows. Dismissal inside the window needs Defense Ministry employment-committee approval (and, for days 31 to 60, the Labor Ministry oversight committee). Verify the current rule, the extensions are periodically renewed
• Employees who filed complaints (e.g., sexual harassment, safety): protected from retaliatory dismissal

Wrongful termination remedies: reinstatement (hashava la'avoda), compensation for damages, and increased severance pay (up to 150% for particularly egregious termination).

For hearing requirements, the remedy where it was defective (damages without proof of damage), limitation periods, and which court to file in, see the termination workflow in the reference file.

Step 10: Workplace Harassment (Hatrada Minit)

Per the Sexual Harassment Prevention Law, 1998 (Chok Meni'at Hatrada Minit):

Employer obligations:

• Every employer with more than 25 employees must adopt a written sexual harassment prevention policy (takanon)
• Appoint a designated officer (memune) to handle complaints
• Conduct training on harassment prevention
• Employers with fewer than 25 employees must still comply with the law but are not required to have a written policy

What constitutes sexual harassment under the law:

• Physical conduct of a sexual nature
• Repeated sexual propositions after the person has shown disinterest
• Repeated references to a person's sexuality when they have shown disinterest
• Degrading or humiliating treatment related to gender, sexuality, or sexual orientation
• Publication of intimate photographs without consent

Filing a complaint:

• Internal complaint to the designated officer (memune) at the workplace
• External complaint to the police (for criminal aspects)
• Civil lawsuit in labor court (beit din la'avoda)
• Complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (Netzivut Shivyon Hizdamnuyot Ba'avoda)
• Routes: the employer's harassment officer, the police, and a compensation claim in the labor court. Ask a lawyer about the filing deadline, which differs by route

Protections:

• The complainant is protected from retaliation (cannot be fired, demoted, or have conditions worsened)
• The employer must investigate complaints within a reasonable time
• Failure to act on complaints exposes the employer to liability

Service orderers. Duties under this law reach beyond the direct employer to a business that engages workers through a contractor or manpower agency (mazminey sherut), so the site operator is not off the hook for agency staff. This matters for cleaning, security, catering and agency staff, who previously fell between the contractor and the site operator with neither taking responsibility.

Step 11: Disability Accommodations

Per the Equal Rights for People with Disabilities Law, 1998 (Chok Shivyon Zchuyot Le'anashim Im Mugbaluyot):

Employer obligations:

• Provide reasonable accommodations (hat'amot) for employees with disabilities
• Cannot discriminate in hiring, promotion, or termination based on disability
• Must ensure physical accessibility of the workplace

Reasonable accommodations include:

• Modified work hours or schedules
• Accessible workstation equipment
• Work-from-home arrangements when feasible
• Modified job duties that do not fundamentally change the role
• Additional break time as needed

Key rules:

• Applies to employers with 25+ employees (some provisions apply to smaller employers)
• The employer is not required to make accommodations that impose an "undue burden" (natel bilti savir)
• The employee should notify the employer of the need for accommodations
• Disputes can be brought before the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission or labor court

A reservist's partner may have their own paid-absence entitlement under the 29 April 2026 extension order; see the reference file.

Step 12: Travel Reimbursement, Pay Slip, and Post-Dismissal Benefits

Travel reimbursement (Dmei Nesia / Hechzer Hotza'ot Nesia):

Under the Travel-to-Work Extension Order, almost every employee who needs transport to reach the workplace is entitled to a monthly travel reimbursement.

• The employer pays the LOWER of the actual public-transport fare or the statutory daily cap, for each day transport was actually needed. The 2026 cap is 22.60 NIS per day; verify it before relying on it
• Carve-out: no entitlement where the employee does not need public transport (walking distance, or employer-provided transport). Detail in references/entitlements-calculator.md

Pay slip (Tlush Maskoret):

Under the Wage Protection Law s.24 the employer must give a detailed pay slip for each pay period, no later than the ninth day after payday, itemizing gross pay, every component (base, overtime, convalescence) and every deduction (income tax, national insurance, health tax, pension). It is the employee's primary tool for checking that the entitlements above were actually paid. Failing to provide a proper slip violates the law.

Post-dismissal and injury paths (Bituach Leumi):

• Unemployment benefit (dmei avtala): after dismissal, an employee who meets the qualifying period may claim unemployment benefit from Bituach Leumi. Register at the Employment Service (Sherut HaTaasuka) and file a claim with Bituach Leumi
• Work-injury benefit (nifgaei avoda): an employee injured at work or on the way to/from work, or who develops an occupational illness, may claim a work-injury benefit (including injury allowance and, if relevant, a disability pension) from Bituach Leumi

Examples

Example 1: Calculating Vacation Entitlement

User says: "I've worked at my company for 6 years. How many vacation days am I entitled to?"

From the Step 2 table: year 6 = 18 gross calendar days = 14 net working days on a 5-day week. Quote the net figure, since that is what they schedule off. Check for a collective agreement giving more, and cover carry-forward (normally needs employer consent, except in the reference file's emergency and reserve-duty cases).

Example 2: Severance Pay After Termination

User says: "I was fired after 3 years and 4 months. My last salary was 15,000 NIS. How much severance should I get?"

Actions:

1. Run python3 scripts/severance-calculator.py --salary 15000 --years 3 --months 4
2. Ask to SEE the signed Section 14 arrangement and check the deposit rate on the pay slip: at the 6% minimum the fund covers only about 72% of the statutory figure, so a completion payment is owed
3. Advise on the 15-day deadline and penalty interest, and on the 60-day limitation that kills the penalty claim
4. Verify a hearing (shima) was held before termination

Result: approximately NIS 50,000 (15,000 x 3.33). A full Section 14 arrangement replaces this with the fund balance. Full termination workflow in references/entitlements-calculator.md.

Example 3: Sick Leave Rights

User says: "I've been sick for a week. My employer says I only get paid from day 4. Is that correct?"

Partially. Day 1 is unpaid, but days 2-3 must be paid at 50% (not zero), and days 4-7 at 100%. Check the accrued balance (1.5 days accrued per month, capped at 90) and confirm a medical certificate exists. For a short absence an HMO short sick certificate may suffice; see the reference file.

Example 4: Pre-Termination Hearing

User says: "My boss told me I'm fired, effective immediately. No hearing, no notice. What are my rights?"

Two separate breaches. The employer must hold a shimua BEFORE deciding, and compensation for a defective hearing needs no proof of damage, so the claim stands even if no money was lost. After a year the employer also owes a month's notice; paying it out in cash is lawful but carries no pension or severance accrual. Send a written demand citing both, and do not sign anything at the exit meeting. Procedure, remedy and filing route: references/entitlements-calculator.md.

Bundled Resources

Scripts

• scripts/severance-calculator.py -- Severance from salary and tenure, or a salary history (per-period vs last-salary). Handles Section 14 and the completion payment. Run with --help.

References

• references/labor-laws-summary.md -- Key Israeli labour laws with names, years and provisions. Use to identify which law applies.
• references/entitlements-calculator.md -- Seniority tables for vacation, sick and convalescence pay, plus the termination workflow: Section 14 validity, Form 161, proportional havraa, pay in lieu of notice, unemployment timing, the hearing remedy, limitation periods, where to file. Read it on any dismissal question.

Gotchas

• Israeli sick pay is graduated: 0% day 1, 50% days 2-3, 100% from day 4. Agents trained on US or European norms assume 0% or 100% throughout and get this wrong.

• The work week is 42 hours (since April 2018). Older training data says 43 or 45, which corrupts every overtime calculation.

• Vacation days are counted in calendar days on a 6-day basis. Converting to a 5-day week uses the statutory gross-to-net mapping in Step 2 (18 gross = 14 net in year 6), NOT a 5/6 multiplier.

• Severance is due within 15 days of termination, after which penalty interest accrues automatically. Do not cite a 30-day or "reasonable time" standard from another jurisdiction.

• The pre-termination hearing (shimua) is mandatory and has no US at-will equivalent. Omitting it can render a dismissal unlawful regardless of the grounds.

• The child-illness sick-day quota is per parent, not per child, and does not scale with part-time hours. A parent of three still has 8 days, not 24.

• The halana penalty EXPIRES: 60 days from receiving the late payment (court may extend to 90), or one year from the sum falling due, whichever is earlier. Telling an employee to demand it without the deadline is worse than silence, because negotiating past it forfeits the claim.

• Do not let the employee sign a general waiver (kitav vitur) to get their money. An employer may not condition severance on one, and signing extinguishes every other right here. Take it away, read it, do not sign at the meeting.

• Vacation redemption is capped: accrual is limited to the current year plus the two preceding, with a 3-year limitation. But check the pay slip, since days the employer's own record shows may still be redeemable.

Reference Links

Recommended MCP Servers

Troubleshooting

Error: "Employer claims overtime exemption"

Cause: Senior managers and positions of trust can be exempt under the Hours of Work and Rest Law. Solution: The exemption is narrow and turns on actual authority, not a "manager" title. Where the employer kept no time records the burden shifts to them, which is what makes most overtime claims winnable. If disputed, go to the labour court.

Error: "Employer not making pension contributions"

Cause: Breach of the mandatory pension order, common in small businesses. Solution: Check the pay slip for pension lines and the deposit RATE (6% minimum to severance). If absent or short, send a written demand; if unmet in 30 days, complain to the Ministry of Labour enforcement division or file in the labour court.

Error: "Severance not paid within 15 days"

Cause: Employer delay, dispute over amount, or cash flow. Solution: Send a formal written demand (michtav drisha) citing the Severance Pay Law and the 15-day deadline, after which penalty interest (pitzuyei halanat pitzuyim) accrues automatically. State the deadline too: the penalty claim dies 60 days after the late payment is received (court may extend to 90), or one year from the sum falling due, whichever is earlier. The severance itself stays claimable for 7 years. File in labor court for both.

Error: "Employer refuses convalescence pay"

Cause: Unfamiliarity with the duty, or a claim under one year of service. Solution: Confirm one full year, then compute from the seniority table (Step 7) and the current daily rate, using the correct sector rate. On termination add the proportional part of the current year. Demand in writing; if unpaid, complain to the Ministry of Labour or file in the labour court.