Ten trade unions have accused Israel of breaching international labor law by holding back pay and benefits from more than 200,000 Palestinian workers since 7 October.
The Israeli government stands accused of “blatant” violations of the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) protection of wages convention, tipping many Palestinians into extreme poverty.
Workers from Gaza and the West Bank, employed in Israel, did not receive payment for work completed prior to last October – when Hamas militants led an attack that killed nearly 1,200 people in southern Israel – and have received no wages since, according to the complaint. The attack triggered an Israeli assault on Gaza that has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians and laid waste to much of the territory.
A complaint filed on Friday aims to recover the wages of Palestinian workers who previously worked in Israel.
“Two hundred thousand workers in the West Bank lost their jobs,” said Assaf Adiv, executive director of Maan Workers Association, an independent workers’ organization in Israel that was not involved in the filing of the complaint. “They did not receive any compensation and have been suffering ever since from extreme poverty.
“Thousands of workers who risk entering Israel without permits face repression, humiliation and even death. Workers are a major social layer in Palestinian society that is peaceful and doesn’t associate with Hamas and thus should not be punished.”
According to ILO estimates, the average daily wage for Palestinian workers in Israel was 297.30 shekels ($79), with average weekly wages ranging from 2,100-2,600 shekels ($565-$700).
Israel revoked work permits for about 13,000 Palestinian workers from the Gaza Strip to work legally in Israel following the Hamas attack on 7 October, according to a legal brief on the complaint, leaving those workers with unpaid wages from September and October. Those wages would have normally been paid on 9 October.
An additional nearly 200,000 Palestinian workers from the West Bank employed in Israel have not been permitted to enter Israel, and have received no termination notices, according to the brief, which argues they are owed wages stipulated by their employment contracts for their previous work and subsequent months.
The unions allege that Israel is violating the ILO’s protection of wages convention, which has been ratified by a hundred member states, including Israel in 1959.
A May report from the ILO estimated that, since 7 October, unemployment for Palestinians has been at an all-time high. “Economic production losses throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory are estimated at almost US$19 million per day,” it stated.
“When the war started, we returned home during the initial phase of the conflict. Since then, we haven’t received any salaries or found any work,” said Khaled Jamal Muhammad Karkash, a Palestinian worker. “We’re trying our best to find something to do to meet some of our needs. I’m the breadwinner for my family. No one else is working at home.”
Another Palestinian worker, Mahmoud Salhab, had also been working in Israel, but since last October has not been allowed back to work.
“I’m the primary breadwinner, and I have a four-year degree, yet I can’t find a job,” said Salhab. “Since the first war, I’ve only been working four days a month, just enough to cover basic necessities like bread and oil. I was engaged before the war, but now, I’ve not finished building my house, I can’t afford to get married.”
More than 500,000 jobs have been lost in Gaza and the West Bank, according to the International Labour Organization, worsening an already dire economic landscape for Palestinians. In March, Mohamed Mustafa, the Palestinian prime minister, claimed the unemployment rate was at 89%.
“When I visited the West Bank earlier this year, I witnessed the economic destitution experienced by the families of Palestinian workers employed in Israel,” said Luc Triangle, general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation. “As always, working people are enduring the worst of the continuing conflict. Through this petition, we want to ensure that the much-needed back pay is paid out to workers who are struggling to make ends meet.”
The trade unions behind the complaint represent some 207 million workers across more than 160 countries. They include the Building and Wood Workers’ International, Education International, the IndustriAll Global Union, the International Federation of Journalists, the International Trade Union Confederation, the International Transport Workers’ Federation, the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations, Public Services International, and UNI Global Union. The Trade Union Advisory Committee to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development also signed on to the complaint.