There are two steps involved in hiring a foreign worker.
Firstly, a foreign worker wishing to work in Israel must be approved by the ministry of interior.
The second step involves the employer requesting to hire the employee and receiving approval from the ministry of interior.
Hiring an employee without the correct working visa is a criminal offence.
In addition to the working visa, an employer must ensure the employee undergoes a medical examination by a certified medical institute in their home country in the three months prior to their arrival in Israel.
In the case that the employee’s country of residence does not have a certified medical institute approved by the Israeli ministry of health, the examination will take place in that country by an Israeli medical institute.
Working Rights
Israeli law states that any employee, including foreign employees on a working visa, are protected by the labour laws of Israel and are entitled to all working rights of Israel such as sick leave, holiday leave, travel expenses, termination notice etc..
Work Contract
The Employment contract must be written in a language spoken and understood by the foreign worker and must include:
- The identity of the employer and the employee
- Outline of the role
- The salary/wages of the employee, payment period and time of payments
- Salary deductions
- Social security payments
- Date of commencement of employment and length of employment
- Length of working day, working week and off days
- Conditions of paid leave, sick leave and holiday leave
- The employer duties according to the law
- The rights to file complaints
The employer must also pay, at their expense, private health insurance for the employee for the entire duration of their stay in Israel.
Additionally, the employer must ensure that there is accommodation for the employee for the entire duration of their employment including 7 days past termination of employment. In the event that the employee does not utilise the 7 days past termination, the employer is entitled to deduct those days from the employee’s salary.
Allowed deductions for unused accommodation by area
The employer is also entitled to deduct accommodation bills from the employee’s salary in accordance with the agreed rates totalling not more than 100 NIS per month.
Documentation
By law, the employer of a foreign employee must have the employment contract at their place of work with an appropriate Hebrew translation in addition to any other necessary documents.
Superannuation and Compensation
Superannuation must be paid to foreign workers under Israeli law, into a separate bank account opened for the purpose of collecting superannuation funds, allowing the employee to extract those funds once their work in Israel is complete.
Tax
As of 1.1.2022 employers are no longer required to pay levy tax on foreign employees
Social Security
The rates of social security for foreign employees are as below:
For foreign employees from one of the countries listed below, the employer is to pay full social security for them as if they were Israeli residents, including all the branches of social security, excluding Health insurance.
- Austria
- Uruguay
- Belgium
- Britain
- Switzerland
- Germany
- Denmark
- Holland
- Norway
- Finland
- Italy
- Slovakia
- Czech Republic
- France
- Romania
- Sweden
- Russia
For foreign workers not from the countries listed above, the employer is to only pay the branches of social security which include; Bankruptcy, work injury and mothers.
