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Labour Disputes Settlement Law, 5717-1957

חוק יישוב סכסוכי עבודה, תשי"ז-1957

Published: 1957-02-28Consolidated Hebrew text as of 2026-08-02 · Last amended 2026-07-28✓ Amendment status checked against the Knesset legislation record on 2026-09-29
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Unofficial English translation — for reference only. It may contain errors or omissions and cannot be relied on as a legal text. Only the Hebrew text published in Reshumot is legally binding.More

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The Hebrew text as published in Reshumot (ספר החוקים) and on the Knesset website is the sole authoritative and legally binding version. In any discrepancy, the Hebrew text prevails.

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Chapter IV: Collective Agreement in the Public Service

Definitions§

37a.

For the purposes of this Chapter –

"collective agreement" – as defined in section 1 of the Collective Agreements Law, 5717-1957, whether or not it was made and submitted for registration under that Law, including any other collective arrangement, provided that they were made in writing and that rates of wages were fixed therein;

"public service" – any one of the following services:

(1)the State service, including the defence establishment and every enterprise or institution established by law, whether or not the State Service (Appointments) Law, 5719-1959 applies to the employees thereof;
(2)the service of local authorities;
(3)health services, except an enterprise or institution not in public ownership that is conducted for the purpose of making profits and is included in a list of enterprises and institutions as aforesaid drawn up by the Minister of Health with the approval of the Labour Committee of the Knesset and published in Reshumot (Official Gazette);
(4)compulsory education as defined in the Compulsory Education Law, 5709-1949;
(5)secondary education above compulsory education, including vocational and agricultural education, except an institution not in public ownership that is conducted for the purpose of making profits and is included in a list of institutions as aforesaid drawn up by the Minister of Education and Culture with the approval of the Labour Committee of the Knesset and published in Reshumot (Official Gazette);
(6)institutions of higher education recognised under the Council for Higher Education Law, 5718-1958;
(7)other institutions of post-secondary study, except an institution not in public ownership that is conducted for the purpose of making profits and is included in a list of institutions as aforesaid drawn up by the Minister of Education and Culture with the approval of the Labour Committee of the Knesset and published in Reshumot (Official Gazette);
(8)air transport and air carriage;
(9)the extraction and production of fuel, and also the pumping of fuel through pipelines;
(10)the extraction and supply of water;
(11)the generation and supply of electricity;
(12)
(a)a telecommunication service or telecommunication operation provided by a telecommunication licence holder, as detailed in section 2(b) and (e) of the Communications Law;
(b)a telecommunication service prescribed under section 2(c) of the Communications Law, which the Minister of Communications, with the approval of the Labour and Welfare Committee of the Knesset, has prescribed for the purposes of this Law;
(c)in this paragraph –

"telecommunication service" – as defined in the Communications Law;

"Communications Law" – the Communications Law (Telecommunications and Broadcasting), 5742-1982;

(13)broadcasting as defined in the Second Authority for Television and Radio Law, 5750-1990;

"authorised workers' organisation" –

(1)while a collective agreement is in force – the organisation that is a party to the agreement;
(2)while the collective agreement that was in force is no longer valid – the organisation that was a party to the agreement;
(3)where there was no previous collective agreement – the organisation to which the largest number of organised workers in that public service belong;
(4)where an organisation referred to in paragraphs (1) to (3) is part of a more comprehensive workers' organisation – the comprehensive workers' organisation; however, where a workers' organisation has an agreement made before the commencement of this Law between it and a more comprehensive workers' organisation concerning its joining that comprehensive organisation, and under the agreement the joining organisation is authorised to declare or approve a strike, that joining organisation shall be regarded as the authorised workers' organisation to the extent that the authority to declare or approve a strike is not vested under the agreement in the comprehensive organisation;

"unprotected strike or lockout" – any one of the following:

(1)a strike or lockout of employees in the public service while a collective agreement applies to them, except a strike that is not connected with wages or social conditions and that the supreme national governing body of the authorised workers' organisation has declared or approved;
(2)a strike of employees in the public service while no collective agreement applies to them, or while the collective agreement that applied to them is no longer valid, and the strike was not declared or approved by the body or bodies authorised to do so and in the proceedings prescribed for that purpose, all in accordance with the rules of the authorised workers' organisation; a written confirmation by the supreme national governing body of the authorised workers' organisation that a particular strike was declared or approved as aforesaid shall be conclusive evidence thereof;
(3)a strike or lockout in the public service in respect of which notice was not given in accordance with this Law;

For the purposes of this definition, the following shall be regarded as a strike:

(a)an organised work stoppage, complete or partial, by a group of employees, including a go-slow strike and any other organised disruption of the normal course of work;
(b)an organised refusal by a group of employees to work overtime, where the obligation to work overtime was fixed in a collective agreement and such work is permitted under the Work and Rest Hours Law, 5711-1951, and the refusal was taken as a step in a labour dispute.

Legal consequences of an unprotected strike or lockout§

37b.
(a)An unprotected strike and an unprotected lockout do not constitute a strike or lockout for the purposes of section 62(b) of the Civil Wrongs Ordinance [New Version], but this provision shall apply only to a claim brought by an employee or employer who was a party to the strike or lockout, as the case may be, or by their successors in title.
(b)An unprotected strike does not constitute a strike for the purposes of section 19 of the Collective Agreements Law, 5717-1957.
(c)An unprotected strike does not constitute a strike for the purposes of the second paragraph of section 44 of the Employment Service Law, 5719-1959, with regard to the sending of workers to a place of work where the strike is taking place; however, a job-seeker to whom an employment bureau offered work at a place of work where an unprotected strike is taking place and who for that reason refused to accept the said work shall not, by reason of that refusal, have his rights under the regulations made under section 41 of that Law prejudiced.
(d)A workers' organisation and an employers' organisation shall bear no liability whatsoever in respect of an unprotected strike or lockout that they did not declare or approve; a written confirmation by the supreme national governing body of an authorised workers' organisation or of an employers' organisation that the organisation did not declare or approve a particular strike or lockout, as the case may be, shall be conclusive evidence for the purposes of this subsection.

Legal consequences of an unprotected partial strike§

37c.
(a)A regional court as defined in the Labour Court Law, 5729-1969, is competent to determine, upon the application of an employer in the public service, that employees at a particular place of work or some of them have engaged in or are engaging in an unprotected strike that is not a complete work stoppage; once the court has so determined, the employees employed at that place of work or some of them, as the court has determined, shall be entitled only to partial wages for the work they actually performed during the period of the said strike, at a rate determined by the court according to the circumstances of the case.
(b)A regional court shall not entertain an application under subsection (a) in respect of a period preceding six months before its submission.
(c)An employee who is entitled only to partial wages as referred to in subsection (a) shall be regarded as being entitled to an amount equal to half of his regular wages as the partial wages due to him for so long as the court has not determined the rate of his partial wages as aforesaid; for the purposes of this subsection, "regular wages" means the sum of the components of wages taken into account for the purposes of severance pay, pursuant to section 13 of the Severance Pay Law, 5723-1963, excluding supplements paid in respect of output or in respect of work effort.
(d)Wage differentials owed by an employer to an employee or by an employee to an employer by virtue of the provisions of this section shall be paid within 30 days of the date of the determination by the regional court as to the rate of partial wages as referred to in subsection (a), unless the court has fixed another date for payment; an excess amount paid as aforesaid to an employee shall be regarded as an advance to which section 25(a)(7) of the Wage Protection Law, 5718-1958, applies, provided that the rate of deduction shall not exceed 25% of the employee's wages.

Enhanced compensation§

37d.

Where an employer in the public service has breached a provision of a collective agreement, the Labour Court may, upon the application of the employee in respect of whom the agreement was breached, or of the workers' organisation of which he is a member, order him to pay enhanced compensation in addition to any other remedy, and it may award compensation even for a breach that causes no pecuniary loss.

Settlement of disputes§

37e.

A collective agreement applicable in the public service shall be deemed to include the provisions of the Schedule with respect to every dispute for which the agreement does not contain other provisions for its settlement.

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Chapter V: The Labour Relations Council

Appointment of a Labour Relations Council§

38.

The Minister of Labour shall appoint a Labour Relations Council (hereinafter – the Council) which shall advise him on all matters relating to labour relations.

Composition of the Council§

39.
(a)The members of the Council shall be representatives of employees and representatives of employers, in equal numbers.
(b)The employees' representatives on the Council shall be appointed after consultation with the workers' organisation representing the largest number of employees in the State, and the employers' representatives shall be appointed after consultation with representative employers' organisations in the State.
(c)Notice of the appointment of the Council and the names of its members shall be published in Reshumot (Official Gazette).

Term of office§

40.

The Minister of Labour may prescribe by Regulations the term of office of the Council and the conditions for the termination of membership of the Council before the expiry of its full term of office.

Chairperson of the Council§

41.

The Minister of Labour, or a person appointed by him for that purpose, shall be the chairperson of the Council.

Rules of procedure of the Council§

42.

The Council shall determine its rules of procedure and working methods to the extent that they have not been prescribed by Regulations.

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Chapter VI: Miscellaneous Provisions

Implementation and regulations§

43.

The Minister of Labour is charged with the implementation of this Law and may, after consulting the Council, make Regulations on any matter relating to its implementation.

Repeal§

44.

The Industrial Courts Ordinance, 1947, and the Ottoman Strikes Law of 27 July 1909 are hereby repealed.

Legal position of the State§

44a.

For the purposes of this Law, the legal position of the State as an employer is the same as that of any other employer, however –

(1)the decision on mediation in a labour dispute to which the State is a party shall be made by the Minister of Labour;
(2)in a dispute between the State and the workers' organisation that is representative as referred to in section 3, the mediator shall be a person whose name is included in a list of mediators who are not State employees and which has been agreed upon between the State and the workers' organisation representing the largest number of State employees;
(3)if the parties to the dispute have agreed on a mediator from the agreed list, that person shall be the mediator in the dispute; if within three days of the date of the decision on mediation the parties have not agreed on the appointment of a mediator, the Minister of Labour may appoint a mediator from the agreed list.

Commencement§

45.

This Law shall come into force on the 28th of Adar I 5717 (1 March 1957).

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Schedule (Section 37d)

1.§

If a labour dispute arises and the parties have not reached an agreement within seven days on the manner of settling the dispute, the dispute shall be referred to arbitration, upon the application of one of the parties, before a joint committee of representatives of the parties, which shall convene within seven days of the date of the application for arbitration.

2.§

If the joint committee has reached an agreed decision on the settlement of the dispute, the decision shall have the same effect as an arbitration award pursuant to section 31(c) of the Law.

3.§

If the joint committee did not convene as referred to in section 1 or did not reach an agreed decision within thirty days of the date of the application for arbitration, the dispute shall be brought, upon the application of one of the parties, for determination by arbitration; the arbitration shall be before one or more arbitrators as agreed between the parties, and if they have not agreed within seven days of the date of the application to hold the arbitration – before three arbitrators, of whom each party shall appoint one arbitrator and the two arbitrators shall appoint an additional arbitrator who shall be the chairperson.

4.§

The arbitration shall be concluded within thirty days of the date of the application to hold it.

5.§
(a)The periods referred to in this Schedule may be extended by the parties; the period referred to in section 3 may also be extended by the joint committee and the period referred to in section 4 may also be extended by the arbitrator or arbitrators.
(b)In computing the periods referred to in this Schedule, the period during which mediation is taking place under Chapter II of the Law shall not be taken into account.

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