Foreign Worker Awarded Tens of Thousands After Being Passed Between Three Labor Companies

A labor court has ruled that a foreign worker, originally from Russia, who was employed at the Naot Gil Oz nursing home in Petah Tikva for nearly five years, should receive approximately 55,000 shekels in compensation. The worker, Ella Kazachok, was transferred between three different labor contracting companies from August 2018 to April 2023, leaving his employment status unclear. The nursing home claimed it was merely a service consumer and not the direct employer.

However, the court found this argument unconvincing. The nursing home's manager admitted under cross-examination that they contracted with labor companies because they struggled to recruit foreign workers themselves, effectively acknowledging them as employers. The court also noted that payments were based on hourly rates tied to actual work hours, not a fixed global sum for services, further indicating a direct employment relationship.

A key factor in the ruling was the failure of the nursing home to prove that the contracting companies were properly licensed to operate as labor recruiters. Under Israeli law, if a licensed contractor cannot be proven, the user of the services, in this case the nursing home, is legally considered the employer from the outset.

The court also addressed discrepancies in pay stubs presented by the worker and the defendants. While the net amounts paid were similar, the worker's stubs included pension, vacation, and holiday pay components that were largely absent from the defendants' versions, suggesting these benefits were fictitious. The court ordered the nursing home and one of the labor companies, Tal-Yah, to jointly pay the compensation, which includes backdated pension contributions, vacation and holiday pay, and compensation for failing to provide proper pay stubs and employment terms in a language the worker understood.

Some of the worker's claims were dismissed, including a demand for 100,000 shekels for overtime pay, as he had kept detailed records. His claim of a 30 shekel net hourly wage was also rejected after calculations showed discrepancies.