High unemployment and restrictions on travel into Israel have forced 25,000 labourers into working on Israeli-owned industrial zones in the West Bank. Beyond the reach of PA control, these workers are exploited by their Israeli employers.
"The settlement factories are manned primarily by Palestinian labourers, who work in miserable conditions", says Fathi Nasser, legal advisor with the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU). "The employers of these factories disregard labour laws and should the worker complain, he will be dismissed". According to Nasser, as it is so difficult to obtain authorisation to take a case before an Israeli court, providing real legal protection to these workers is very complicated.
Kav LaOved is an organisation committed to protecting workers right in Israel and the Palestinian Territories. For five years, they have been educating Palestinian workers in settlements on how to protect themselves against abuse in the workplace. "Israeli industrialists claimed, upon establishing their factories in the West Bank, their purpose was to create employment for Palestinians", says Arafat Amro, Kav LaOved’s West Bank leader. "Really, they moved here to dodge taxes and because the Israeli government turns a blind eye to the activities in these factories. So they can do what they want".
Until 2007, Palestinians in the settlements were paid according to an out-dated Jordanian law on minimum wage. Now, as a result of Kav LaOved’s advocacy work in the Knesset, Palestinians in the settlements have the protection of Israel’s official minimum wage statute, although in practise this is rarely enforced.
The Democracy and Workers Rights Centre (DWRC) tries to protect workers by educating workers on how to use their rights. "Officially, Palestinian workers in the West Bank’s industrial zones are entitled to the protection of Israeli labour laws but employers find many ways to avoid giving Palestinians their rights", DWRC’s coordinator of the Legal Aid and Human Rights Project, Hwayda told us. The organisation was created in response to the failure of Israel’s major labour union, Histadrut, to represent Palestinian workers.
Hwayda describes a case concerning a paint factory in an industrial settlement near Jericho, which employs 140 Palestinians to produce paint and apply it to aluminium, a dangerous job. They regularly work more than the legal maximum eight hour shift without extra pay, sometimes forced to complete a night shift immediately after a day shift. One worker became ill with a respiratory problem caused by exposure to dangerous chemicals. His employer refused to bring him to an Israeli hospital, despite having a legal obligation to, forcing fellow workers to take him to a hospital in Jericho. He was diagnosed with a heart problem as a result. "By sending workers to Palestinian hospitals, employers ensure they cannot claim indemnity or compensation as Israel does not recognise Palestinian medical reports. This is one way that Israeli employers in the settlements deny Palestinians labourers their rights", says Hwayda.
Kav LaOved recently sponsored a strike for the workers of the Sol Or gas manufacturing factory near Tulkarem, which has lasted for the past 24 days. Workers are receiving neither minimum wage nor paid holidays, and are forbidden from using the bathroom in the factory, which is reserved for Israeli workers. One worker has cancer from exposure to toxic chemicals. He went to the insurance company in Israel to be told he was not insured; the employer had lied to his workers, telling them they were insured with an Israeli company.
Employers do not deal directly with employees, Nasser explains, usually installing a Palestinian as an intermediary, or 'broker’, whose job it is to recruit workers, for which they get 60% of each worker’s wage. All employment papers are in the name of the broker, so that the employer relinquishes all responsibility for his workers as there is no official documentation to prove their relationship.
Three months ago the Palestinian Authority issued an order telling Palestinians not to work inside the settlements, but Nasser feels the problem will not be addressed so easily. "They (PA) must find jobs for the 25,000 people working there. This will be one of the greatest challenges facing them".