Slippery Slope

The High Court of Justice this week rejected the petition of Yolanda Gloten, a home health aide who demanded overtime pay, ruling that current Israeli labor laws do not apply to live-in caregivers. (Haaretz)

(Hebrew – Haaretz)

Tel Aviv’s only homeless shelter for drug and alcohol addicts bars entrance to HIV/AIDS patients in violation of the law. The shelter operates under the authority of the Tel Aviv Municipality, which has privatized its services for taking care of the homeless, handing them over to Lasova non-profit.

The Rehabilitation Works Fund has been withholding the wages of 2,500 handicapped people for the past few weeks. The fund operates as a public trust sponsored by the Ministry of Social Affairs and provides services to thousands of handicapped people, and operates diagnostic and rehabilitation centers. It has encountered a severe budget deficit of 20 million Shekels, and has therefore withheld the wages of the 600 councilors who work with the handicapped.

(Hebrew – Ynet)

According to data published by the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, the average salary for female employees amounts to 66% of the average salary for male employees.

A national-religious Ulpana (girls’ high school) located in the center of the country will compensate  a teacher who was fired upon telling school officials she was pregnant through in-vitro fertilization. (Haaretz)

(Hebrew – Haaretz)

A new report by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) concludes that people and organizations with economic means use libel (SLAPP) suits to silence criticism. Attorney Avner Pinchuk, the report’s author, claims that “the primary effect of these law suits is not legal but public: a silencing of criticism leveled against the plaintiff, and harming of those who interfere with his affairs. (ACRI)

(Hebrew – Haaretz)

Yigal Gozland, an Ashdod Port worker who was convicted of arson and sentenced to seven years in prison, was defined by the port management as being on leave without pay, so that his position and rights would wait for him upon his release.

(Hebrew – Haaretz)

Meshulam Nahari (Shas), a minister without portfolio, hid a conflict of interest when he submitted a funding request to the Prime Minister’s Office tenders committee for an exemption. The nonprofit to which Nahari requested the government transfer NIS 15,000 is chaired by the grandfather of Nahari’s daughter-in-law. (Haaretz)

(Hebrew – Haaretz)

The Israel Land Authority has admitted it had transferred 1200 dunams of private Palestinian farmland in the north of the Jordan Valley to Kibbuts Merav approximately 30 years ago. (Haaretz)

(Hebrew – Haaretz)

Former Interior Ministry Director-General, Gabi Maimon, will be indicted (pending a hearing), on suspicion of purchasing land plots without meeting the conditions of the tender, instead utilizing straw men and forged documents.

(Hebrew – Haaretz)