3 months of war in Gaza has put business owners in Israel in a confusing position. On the one hand, they must continue to work while providing emotional support to employees who are called into the Army Reserve. On the other hand, the law prevents them from firing employees who have been serving in the reserve for several months.
However, many business owners are urging their employees to return to work, according to what was monitored by the Israeli economic newspaper “Globes”.
A more complex reality
“An employer cannot pressure a man or woman on reserve duty in the army to return to work,” says Yigal Blitman, former president of the Israeli Labor Court and now special counsel to a law firm. But the reality is much more complex, he says.
He added, “The employer can ask the employee to ensure his long-term presence and absence from reserve service in the army, for special circumstances, as long as his role is not essential to the army’s needs during combat.”
According to the newspaper, employers will never admit to exerting direct pressure on an employee to return from reserve service. On the contrary, they tend to show their flexibility and acknowledge the moral burden imposed on them.
She adds that the damage to employers is great, as the grants do not cover the full cost of these absent employees, from paying social insurance contributions to even the losses resulting from the worker’s absence.
Employer pressures
Employers often make it clear to employees that they need them, and put some pressure on them to return, either indirectly or explicitly. Therefore, some reservists choose hybrid service, a model that combines work and reserve service in the Israeli army, and some are paid to do so, according to the newspaper.
“Globes” quoted a spokeswoman for a political figure (whom she did not name) as saying that since her enlistment in the reserve, she has been trying to respond to her employer, and at the same time she works as a reservist, adding that the employer considers her absent from the work team, “She does not exert pressure…but the message is “Very clear: She wants me to get it over with and come back.”
On the other hand, another employee says – according to the newspaper – that the pressure exerted on her by her employer forced her to work at the same time as her service in the reserve, in a way that made things difficult for her until she became unable to adapt.
An employee at a startup company says, “They appointed an employee to work in my place for this period, and they asked me to help her, and they continued to contact me on a daily basis regarding work matters, despite my service in the reserve.”
Working with a gun
The newspaper quotes another employee, who works as an officer, as saying, “With no other option, I come to work once a week in my free time, with my uniform and my gun to help. The pressure has begun (on me).”
He added, “From the moment I was called to the reserves, the pressure increases over time. My role in the reserves is very important to me. If I cannot work at the same time, unfortunately I will not have a job to return to.”
There are employees whose situation forced them to return their accounts, and here a senior executive in the NGO sector says that she left her job because of the situation, adding, “I was divided among the employees. I thought about resigning even before, the situation gave me an impetus. I faced a lot of pressure to return to work, I modified the system for that, but in the end I decided to end work there,” the newspaper quoted her as saying.
tango
The director of organizational development and consulting at BDO, which combines service in the Israeli army reserve and work, says that this combination is very complex. “It is a tango that must be performed while moving… There is fatigue that comes from these changes,” she was quoted as saying. The newspaper.
It is expected that the resort to the “hybrid army” model will expand, according to the newspaper, which indicated that the Ministry of Finance has already realized that the new reality requires employees to be absent from work more than before and has begun developing a plan.
Accountant Nimrod Ratner says, “Because of the sensitive situation, legislation has begun to be promoted that would provide a solution, such as extending the period of protection from dismissal (after reserve service in the army),” the newspaper quoted him as saying.
According to an analysis conducted by the Aaron Institute for Economic Policy at Reichmann University, the economy will not return to full workforce until the end of next year.
War raises wages
In this context, the average wage in Israel jumped 10% last November, on an annual basis, to 12,651 shekels ($3,413.50), according to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics.
Last October, the average wage was 12,492 shekels ($3,370.60), which is 6% higher than it was in October 2022. Excluding inflation, the real increase in the average wage was 2.2%.
The Globes newspaper explained the increase in average wages in part by the increase in the number of people who took unpaid leave due to the war, most of whom were low-wage.
According to official figures, the number of jobs in the Israeli economy decreased by 1.2% last October, and the war led to a decline in the supply of jobs, but the average wage continued to rise.
The number of paid jobs declined further last November, and was 6.6% lower than it was in the corresponding month of 2022.
