A report from the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Tel-Aviv to the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) said that the monthly minimum wage of foreign workers, including Filipinos, in Israel has raised from 3,335.18 NIS (P39,141.21) to 3,456.58 NIS (P40,568.04).

Aside from that, once the Israeli National Labor Court has decided to finalized the guidelines on the decree in a case involving a worker providing live-in nursing care, caregivers employed in Israel may also received an extra 30% of their minimum wage for overtime work.

Also, Labor Attaché Teresita R. Manzala of the POLO in Tel-Aviv, revealed that foreign workers in the field of care-giving, agricultural, and industrial in the said country have been given the right to change employers as long as the original employer gave their approval. 

She also added that the Israeli High Court of Justice has abolished the old practice of the employment of foreign workers in the said sector. Prior to this system, employers control the visa of the worker that causes injustice and oftentimes lead the worker to suffer non-payment of wages and confiscation of their passports.

According to Manzala, based on the statement of the Israeli High Court, the old practice appears as to be “modern slavery” as it attached the foreign workers to their employers and could possibly causes the fundamental rights of workers as humans are violated. 

The High Court ordered the Israeli government to formulate a new system that is not based in the chaining system nor linked a foreign worker's decision to quit his/her current job to any sanction, the labor attaché also added.     

The Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas said that the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) will make a necessary revision of the Standard Employment Contract for OFWs bound to Israel in accordance with the new development in Israel. 

The implementation of the new minimum wages and the revision of the employment contract would take effect only after the consultation with the recruitment agencies and other stakeholders in the recruitment and employment of Filipino workers bound to Israel, the labor chief added.

Last 2005, a total of 5,114 OFWs were deployed to Israel, most of them were caregivers.