[img]96|left|||no_popup[/img]Dateline Jerusalem — I am always afraid I will run out of topics for my emails and articles. But just when I think I have writer's block, somehow something happens, and I have plenty of material. Unfortunately, this week the topic is my unemployment.
The work week in Israel is Sunday through Thursday. Because I am religious, I do not turn on the computer on Shabbat, from 18 minutes before sundown Friday night until 25 hours later on Saturday night. And it was a fluke that I even checked my work email site on a Saturday night.
Normally I don't check it unless I am in the office. It is a good thing that I am a computer addict and had an urge to check all my email sites. I could just see myself traveling the daily 4 to 5 hours to and from the office on Sunday only to find out that I had been locked out.
Saturday night I received an email instructing me to work from home because the office would be closed on Sunday.
How can I work from home when everything I do is in the office?
Figuring Out When the End Came
I knew something wasn't right. Since I had to “work” from home on Sunday, I was a virtual prisoner in my apartment until I received my phone call from New York that I no longer had a job because the firm was closing its Israeli operation.
In fact, according to the powers that be, my last day of work was officially the Thursday before this phone call. Not exactly much notice, like none at all, and retroactive at that, especially since the “work at home” came after my supposed last day of work.
Of course that was before a colleague of mine informed our employer that we must have written notice. So Monday night I received written notice in Hebrew that I was terminated. Considering I do not read Hebrew, and I worked for an American company, I was at a total loss.
The worst part of all is that I am entitled to certain benefits if I work for a company for one year. My anniversary date is 2 weeks away!
Last year I was laid off after 10 1/2 months of employment and lost the benefits I would have been entitled to had I worked a full year. This year I am laid off after 11 1/2 months of employment. Does that seem like there is a pattern of terminating people close to their anniversary dates? Because the modus operandi of Israeli businesses (and I guess American firms as well) has been to terminate employees prior to their anniversary date so that they are not responsible for certain unemployment benefits, a law had to be enacted to protect employees.
Although I have only worked for U.S. firms doing business here in Israel, they must follow Israeli employment law. In the last 24 hours, I have learned a lot about Israeli law. In Israel, an employee is not entitled to receive certain unemployment benefits if they have not worked for a company for a minimum of one year. Also, there is no such thing as “two weeks notice,” as in the U.S. All Israel requires is that there be written notice, one day for every month that you are employed. However, if you have worked for a year or more, you have to be given a month's notice. Since I am so close to the year, and even if only given one day of notice for each month worked, 11 work days puts me beyond the year.
If you are not given that notice, the employer must pay you for those days. So technically, I will be paid for one month's time without having to go to the office. The way I figure it, however, is that I was terminated mid-month and therefore not getting a full month's pay. In essence, I am now only receiving 2 weeks pay into September, not a month's pay. Okay, it is true that I will not be working for it, but on the other hand, I expected a full month's pay this month. In Israel we get paid once a month so all my budgeting (yes, the shopaholic has reformed) counted on a full monthly salary.
And on a Related Subject…
Another thing I miss out on is the gifts that employers give to employees for the New Year of Rosh Hashana. When I first arrived in Israel it was a pleasant surprise to receive a set of several serving dishes for Rosh Hashana and then money for Passover from my former employer. Perhaps this current employer considers the baseball cap with the company logo I received last week to be my holiday gift this year.
To top it all off, I received an article from a colleague friend that says there are no jobs available for Israeli attorneys in Israel, let alone non-fluent Hebrew speaking U.S.-licensed attorneys. These U.S., attorneys are required to be licensed attorneys by their U.S, employers who outsource litigation support, but their titles and wages are not that of an attorney.
Therefore, they can be paid like receptionists. Most of the English-speaking attorneys I know who moved to Israel from Anglo countries have also recently lost their jobs. More and more legal outsourcing companies have closed their doors. It seems that the economy is so bad in the U.S. that firms do not have to outsource to Israel or India anymore.
They can get attorneys in the U.S. to work for almost the same slave labor salaries we have been paid by these U.S. firms here in Israel. So competition is greater than ever for this over-the-hill grandmother.
L'hitraot. Shachar
Shachar is the Hebrew name of a California-based attorney and former Los Angeles County deputy sheriff who moved to Israel two years ago.
