Deputy Minister of Religious Services Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan has reached agreement with coalition head MK leader MK Yariv Levin to amend the prolonged daylight savings time bill that passed its first reading in Knesset this week. Ben-Dahan wishes to insert a provision to protect frum Jews, many who will have difficulty getting to work on time as a result of the late sunrise time that will exist in the second half of October, close to 7:00am.
The deputy minister points out that this will hit low wage earners the hardest, the manual laborers who tend to have to be at work earlier than one working in high tech for example. Such employees will either have to daven before the zman or arrive at work late and they will be penalized or worse, possibly lose their jobs.
As such, Levin accepted Ben-Dahan’s request to amend the law to include a paragraph that permits workers to arrive late for work during the last two weeks of October, permitting them to daven prior to getting to work. An employer will not be permitted to dock their salaries.
Ben-Dahan praised the bill, which he supports, which he feels will improve the marketplace while accommodating the needs of frum employees.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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8 Responses
Workers who feel that they don’t want to daven before the zman during the weeks after the fall yom tovim before the clock is moved back should have absolutely have the legal right to take up to an hour off from work. However, if they make such a decision, they should be prepared to either work later to make up the extra time or have their paychecks adjusted. Employers in EY who already have to pay for all sorts of worker benefits should not have to pay the bill if their employee is machmir about the zman issue for shachris.
Sunrise at 8:00am. That is ridiculous. How far will these secularists go to assert themselves.
this provsion is not gonna help . because it may stop a boss from firing a frum employee who comes late. but the provision won’t stop employers from not accepting relligious applicants for jobs because they have to come late. plus it will be the burden of the employee to prove that the lateness was the cause of him being fired, and not some other reason the boss makes up.
Just to put things in perspective, in Jerusalem at the end of October, sunrise would be at 6:55 – whereas during the second week of January sunrise is at 6:40.
So we’re only talking about another 15 minutes.
Amazing how much noise is being made about 15 minutes; when the last time a function didn’t start at least 15 minutes late?
Here we go again with the argument of Daylight Savings time. This time in Israel. The vast majority of commentators disagreed with me, believing Daylight Savings time is a wonderful concept. I do not think it’s so great. There are many other issues besides for the later sunrise in the morning. Shabbos starts late and ends late (and those who think it’s no big deal probably don’t have young children to), fast days feel longer (I know… it’s the same 24 hours, but most agree a fast in tevet is easier than tamuz, and finally elderly have trouble making it to late maarivs’. Terminate daylight savings time all together.
Do these people get laid off in January, when sunrise is also late (and since Israel is closer to the equator than Brooklyn, it’s less extreme in Israel)?
They’ll have an easier time getting home for Mincha, and an easier time on Friday (and lower paid workers are the ones more likely to be working at undesirable times, such as Friday afternoon).
This sounds like some high level trolling.
I think that they should get rid of DST altogether but for a different reason. Years ago the argument was made that since we would have an extra hour of sunlight at the end of the day – less electricity in the form of lightbulbs would be used. However, today with the advent of air conditioning, more electricity is being used as the extra hour of sunlight means an extra hour of heat that causes more air conditioning to be used. Having the sun rise 1 hour earlier would probably have little or no effect on air conditioning use as it would only add a little bit of heat to the AM before one leaves their home for shul / work.
This is a symbolic concession to the religious who want the law to be written around yom kippur.