The All-Israeli Association of Trade Unions, Histadrut, has made an appeal to Deputy Israel Eichler, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Commission on Labor and Social Security. They are requesting him to begin promoting a bill that will reimburse employers for the pension contributions of workers called up for reservist duties. This initiative was initiated by Yossi Barabi, who is the head of the trade union of employees of security companies, cleaning companies, and elderly care companies.

According to MP Eti Atia, this issue is prevalent in many sectors and especially in safety and security. In this field, approximately 100 thousand people are employed and at least 20% of them are called up for reservist service. This puts their lives at risk while incurring significant costs for businesses like security companies that have to pay 25% of the salaries of 20% of their workers.

The National Insurance Law currently compensates reservists’ wages based on their gross salary without considering social conditions paid by the employer such as contributions to the pension fund, severance pay, vacation pay, health benefits, sick days and more. These non-reimbursable losses can amount to 22%-36% of an employee’s salary.

This bill would address this issue by ensuring that employers receive compensation for the pension contributions made by their employees who were called up for reservist duties. The Ministers of Labor and Defense support this initiative which is expected to be tabled within two weeks if there is no agreed government legislation formulated by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Defense before then.