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WAC-MAAN Construction Industry Watch

Press release June 5, 2006

The good news: the number of Israeli workers in the construction industry has increased. 

The bad news: migrant workers, working as slaves, are replaced by local workers working as slaves for employment agencies and for sub-contractors.

Figures published recently by the Housing Ministry show an increase in real terms in the number of Israelis working in the construction industry. The Ministry of Housing claims that Israeli construction workers number 135,000 now, an increase of 20,000 since 2001. The Ministry talks about an increase in the first quarter of 2006 (the number of workers in the 4th quarter of 2005 was 127,000). The reason given for this increase is a reduction in employment of foreign workers due to rising costs. The number of foreign workers has decreased since its peak of 74,000 in 2001 to 38,000 today. 

The problem, not mentioned by the Ministry, is that those workers that entered the industry lately were employed by means of sub-contractors and employment agencies ("manpower companies"), some of which are unlicensed. The workers, nearly all Israeli Arabs, are employed without fringe benefits, with fictitious pay slips, and with no controls over health and safety regulations. They are employed as long as they are able to work. When they are injured in accidents common in this line of work, they are discharged at a relatively young age without a pension or any assurance for their future. There is also no investment whatsoever in training, in long term planning or in advanced construction technologies. 

A decade of exploitation of migrant workers has brought about the destruction of organized labor. The large construction companies are unwilling to employ workers directly, and prefer to use sub-contractors, and sometimes sub-sub contractors. These do not implement the collective agreement signed by the Association of Contractors and Builders in Israel (ACBI) only a few months ago. The result is anarchy in the construction industry, and in the labor market. 

For four years WAC-MAAN has been pressing for the reassignment of Israeli construction workers. Last year, as part of this work, WAC was party to a project of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor (MOIT) and the ACBI. This promised government subsidies for construction companies who agree to undertake training of Israeli construction workers. The project failed, both because of government bureaucracy, and because construction companies refused to take on workers directly. 

Construction workers have turned into slaves of employment companies and sub-contractors. WAC-MAAN warns that present policy will lead to an increase in poverty and in social gaps. We demand vigorous governmental action to enforce employment health and safety laws, and to curtail the activities of employment companies.

 

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