Fair Employment for Contract Employees in Israel
ICL operates under many agreements with diverse contractors in Israel who, as part of their activities, are located within the premises of Company plants. These agreements usually relate to types of work requiring specific expertise, such as security, packing, maintenance, catering and cleaning, etc.
According to a resolution of ICL’s Board of Directors dated October 2004, contractors working under such agreements for a period of over six months and whose employees provide a service at a rate of over 50% of full-time, are required by ICL to sign a special appendix relating to the fair employment conditions of their employees.
The requirements in this appendix include, among other things:
- A wage of no less than 5% over the minimum wage;
- Pension fund provisions as provided under the general collective agreement regarding the application of comprehensive pension in industry;
- Shift bonuses as provided under the general collective agreement in the metal, electricity and electronics industry;
- Work clothes and personal safety gear in accordance with ICL procedures;
- At least one hot meal per shift. The cost and wage inclusion of such meal is at the expense of the contractor;
- Holiday gifts in the amount of at least ILS 500 twice a year. Wage inclusion of such gifts are at the expense of the contractor;
- Regular medical checkups in accordance with ICL directives.
All issues related to this policy and its implementation are addressed by the ICL Global Procurement Organization (GPO) in Israel. Uniform procedures have been developed to implement and enforce the policy, and are executed in a similar manner at all ICL sites, allowing the Company to achieve maximum, long-term enforcement when working with contractors.
Contractors undergo audits by an external auditor
In order to ascertain that contractors are in compliance with the labor laws provided by the law and ICL’s requirements, the Company conducts audits carried out by an external auditor engaged by ICL. The process consists of a sample annual examination of contractors’ compliance with the threshold conditions laid out in ICL’s policy appendix.
The appendix also requires the contractor’s auditor to conduct an internal examination of the employment conditions of such contractor’s employees and submit a semi-annual report. The audit is conducted in accordance with standard auditing procedures in order to achieve a reasonable degree of confidence that the data presented does not contain any substantive errors.
The Law for Enhanced Enforcement of Labor Laws, which came into effect in 2013, added another layer, complementary to the fair contractor employment enforcement mechanisms already used by ICL.
As part of the Company’s enforcement plan, ICL audits its contractors who are subject to the Enforcement Law, namely cleaning, catering and security contractors. The audit findings, including details regarding the nature of deficiencies, the names of relevant employees, the scale of deficiencies found, and a request to rectify such deficiencies – are conveyed in full to the contractor. During 2014, two different Expansion Orders were signed by the Israeli Ministry of Economy and Ministry of Finance. These Expansion Orders add new employment benefits to contract employees of cleaning and security contractors. Some of these benefits had already been included in the contracts with relevant ICL contractors and are already included in the audits performed. Following these orders, ICL has incorporated these new benefits into the existing requirements relating to relevant contractors.
