Labour Disputes Settlement Law, 5717-1957

The Minister of Labour shall appoint a Chief Labour Relations Officer (hereinafter – the Chief Officer) and Labour Relations Officers (hereinafter – Officers); notice of an appointment shall be published in Reshumot (Official Gazette).

For the purposes of this Law, a labour dispute is a dispute on one of the matters listed below that has arisen between an employer and his employees or some of them, or between an employer and a workers' organisation or between an employers' organisation and a workers' organisation, excluding an individual dispute; and the matters are:

In a labour dispute between an employer and his employees or some of them, the parties to the dispute are the employer and the workers' organisation representing the majority of the employees to whom the dispute relates, and where there is no such workers' organisation – the representative body elected by the majority of those employees, whether for all matters or for the labour dispute in question.

An employer who is a party to a labour dispute may, in all matters relating to the dispute, be represented by an employers' organisation, and the person authorised to act on behalf of that organisation shall have the same authority as the employer.

A party to a labour dispute may give notice of the dispute to the Chief Officer; the content of the notice, its form and the manner of its delivery shall be determined by the Minister of Labour by Regulations.

Notwithstanding the provisions of Section 5, a party to a dispute is obliged to give notice as referred to in that Section to the other party and to the Chief Officer of any strike or any lockout, as the case may be, at least fifteen days before their commencement.

Where a different arrangement from that set out in section 5a has been prescribed in a collective agreement, the provisions prescribed in the collective agreement shall apply.

The Minister of Labour may prescribe by Regulations, with the approval of the Labour Committee of the Knesset, categories of disputes or branches of employment to which the provisions of section 5a shall not apply.

Where notice has been given pursuant to sections 5 or 5a, or where the Chief Officer has become aware of a labour dispute by other means, the Chief Officer shall decide whether to conciliate in the dispute; if he decides in the affirmative – he shall assume the role of conciliator, unless the Minister of Labour has assumed that role, or shall assign the conciliation to an Officer or to a person specially appointed by the Minister of Labour for the settlement of that labour dispute.

The conciliator shall do his utmost to settle the dispute by way of negotiation, and he may –

Where the parties have reached an agreement for the settlement of a labour dispute, whether on their own initiative or pursuant to a proposal of the conciliator, the conciliator or the parties shall draw up a written agreement to that effect setting out all the terms upon which the dispute is to be settled; the agreement shall be signed by the parties and authenticated by the signature of the conciliator.

An agreement signed pursuant to Section 9 is exempt from stamp duty.

Upon receipt by the Chief Officer of a report pursuant to Section 11, he may propose to the parties that conciliation be renewed, and if they agree thereto – the conciliator shall renew his conciliation and the provisions of this Chapter shall apply to the renewed conciliation.

Where an agreement as referred to in Section 9 has not been signed, anything said in the course of the conciliation by the parties, any evidence heard therein and any proposal for the settlement of the dispute brought therein shall not be binding on the parties and shall not serve as evidence in arbitration proceedings under this Law, unless the parties have agreed thereto in writing.

The following are the matters for arbitration under this Chapter:

Any party to a labour dispute that is a matter for arbitration under this Chapter may give notice of the dispute to an Officer; the provisions of Section 5 apply to a notice under this Section.

The Chief Officer, upon receipt of a copy of the notice given to an Officer, shall appoint an arbitration panel for that dispute (hereinafter – the arbitration panel) or shall act in accordance with Section 18.

The Chief Officer may, at the request of the parties and before appointing an arbitration committee, assume the role of sole arbitrator or appoint an officer to be a sole arbitrator in a dispute, and upon doing either of these, all the powers of an arbitration committee are vested in the sole arbitrator; the provisions of this Chapter concerning arbitration by an arbitration committee apply, with the necessary modifications, to sole arbitration as aforesaid.

An arbitration committee shall consist of three members: one chairperson appointed from among the persons whose names are included in the list of chairpersons for arbitration committees drawn up by the Minister of Labour after consultation with the Labour Relations Council; a workers' representative and an employers' representative appointed, after consultation in respect of each of them with the side represented by that person, from among the persons whose names are included in the lists of workers' representatives and employers' representatives for arbitration committees drawn up by the Minister of Labour after consultation with the workers' organisation representing the largest number of workers in the State and with representative organisations of employers, all as the case may be.

A person who has acted as a conciliator in a particular labour dispute shall not be appointed as a sole arbitrator or as a member of an arbitration committee for that dispute, except with the written consent of the parties.

The chairperson of the arbitration committee shall fix the dates and places of its sessions and shall give notice thereof to the other members of the committee and shall invite the parties to appear before the committee.

An arbitration committee shall not be bound by the laws of evidence, but shall act in the manner that appears to it most conducive to clarifying the matter under consideration.

An arbitration committee shall determine its own rules of procedure, to the extent that these have not been prescribed in this Law or in Regulations made thereunder.

The chairperson of an arbitration committee may hold a session of the committee in the absence of one of the arbitrators, if the chairperson has first ascertained that notice of the place and time of the session was sent to the absent member of the committee and that member did not give written notice of inability to participate in the session and did not show sufficient reasons to the satisfaction of the chairperson; this Section does not apply to the first session of the committee, unless it is held on a postponed date.

Where a session was held in the absence of one of the members as referred to in Section 26, or where one of the members did not participate in the activities of the committee, the legality of the session or the activities of the committee and its powers are not affected by such absence; however, at the request of the member who was absent from the session of the committee, the chairperson may reopen the hearing on questions that were discussed in the absence of that member, if the chairperson considered the reason for the absence to be sufficient.

An arbitration committee may make an interim award and may also at any time revoke that interim award.

An arbitration award or an interim award shall be given by majority decision; and where there is no majority decision, the arbitration award or the interim award shall be given by the chairperson.

A person who was chairperson of the arbitration committee may correct a clerical error that has occurred in an arbitration award.

An arbitration award is final and there is no appeal against it.

The chairperson of the arbitration committee shall deliver to the Chief Officer and to the parties a copy of the arbitration award, the copy being certified by that person's signature.

An arbitration award, as well as a power of attorney given by one of the parties to a person appearing on that party's behalf before an arbitration committee, are exempt from stamp duty.

The Arbitration Ordinance does not apply to arbitration under this Chapter.