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Supreme Court Decision about Deposit Funds (PIKADON)

iSavta | 19.07.2023

as posted by Kav Laoved Migrant Caregivers' Facebook Page

Please read carefully:

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Hello everyone,

We know there is a lot of disinformation regarding the issue of deductions of the State Deposit Fund (the Pikadon), and we want to clarify the decision made by the Supreme Court yesterday. Please share this post.

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IN SHORT, the Supreme Court decided that the practice of deductions form pension / severance funds in the "pikadon" is against the Israeli constitutional basic laws BUT the court delayed the elimination of the law in 6 months, and until then the Knesset (the Parliament of Israel) should enact a new law. The meaning is, that THERE IS NO IMMEDIATE CHANGE IN THE POLICY OF DEDUCTIONS. We will update you on the matter as soon as there is new information.

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A. Kav Laoved and ACRI (Association for Civil Rights in Israel) submitted petitions to the Supreme Court regarding the practice of deducting part of the deposit as a result of overstaying without a visa in Israel.

B. After many years, the Supreme Court decided (6 of 7 judges) yesterday, 12.7.2023 that the practice of these overstaying deductions is illegal, because it disproportionately violates the workers' right for property.

C. But - and this is an important but - the court decided to give the Knesset a six-month period to "reorganize" in order to change the law and propose a more proportionate practice. We do not know what will happen - but unfortunately, in the current political climate - the Knesset and the ministers are already speaking against the court's decision.

D. The court stated, that if there is no new law within these 6 months – all migrant workers that left israel and money was deducted from their funds – will be eligible for refuhds. But, as said, it is too soon to know if and when this will happen.

E. note – this is relevant only for the overstaying deductions and not to the 15% tax – this will not change anyway.

In summary, there are actually no immediate impacts of this decision for you, the migrant caregivers.

1. For the next 6 months, or until the new law is made - the current situation stays, and the rules of deductions are the same.

2. We are not sure yet what the changes of the law will be, we will know better in 6 months.

3. As you all know, the Pikadon rules are relevant only for caregivers whose part of their salary is paid by a Bituach agency.

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We would like to share with you a translation of a paragraph from the court decision by the judge Ofer Grosskopf:

"It is our duty to remember: it is not in order to enjoy the "milk and honey" of the land that the foreign workers are given permission to come to the gates of Israel, but rather so that they will feed the elderly and the suffering dear to us day and night; They will build our houses and our cities, sometimes at the cost of the their health; And they will work in the exhausting field work to produce our food.

Indeed, the foreign workers do all this by choice, and more precisely - while preferring this hard work over the reality of poverty and destitution to which they and their families are subjected in their countries of origin. But from this assumption to the determination according to which a caregiver from the Philippines who devoted her best years to caring for helpless Israelis, or a construction worker from Moldova who was seriously injured in a work accident, are being "bad" when treated "good" just because they avoided leaving the country at the time allotted to them, and therefore do not deserve constitutional protection – the road is very long.

An Israeli who has sinned, even though he has sinned, is protected by the basic laws. And a foreign worker who has sinned, what is his punishment? Doesn't he have basic rights that deserve constitutional protection? Do legally accumulated pension funds become ashes, and can they be completely disappeared in the blink of a law? The answer of this court to these questions must be correct and clear - the foreign worker also has constitutional rights by virtue of the basic laws, and the duty of the Israeli justice system to protect them does not stop even if he has committed a sin."

AMEN.

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