MK (Shas) Yaakov Margi is calling for an urgent meeting of the Knesset Labor Committee to address what he calls the alarming situation regarding discrimination against chareidim in the work place.

Margi, who heads the committee, is responding to alarming Kikar Shabbos News report documenting how chareidi women are being discriminated against in the high-tech workplace.

Margi announced “I read the investigative report and I was shocked to learn that high tech companies operating in Modi’in Illit are employing chareidi women and paying them a disgraceful salary”.

Margi reviewed employment contracts and spoke with some of the women, verifying the details of the report, which cites the women do not receive minimum social benefits and are simply being taken advantage of as compared to high tech employees elsewhere in Israel.

Margi has turned to attorney Tziona King-Yair, the ombudswoman for equal rights in the workplace, presenting her with a copy of the Kikar Shabbos report and its alarming findings. Margi explains to King-Yair that the chareidi women have been too scared to complain for fear of losing the source of their parnasa. He stresses the terms of their employment violate Israel’s labor laws and thereby unacceptable by any standard because they do not receive the social benefits protected under the law. He points out that while everyone is screaming about bringing chareidim into the workplace here we see how chareidim are abused and taken advantage of in the workplace.

The contract reviewed by Margi shows a woman in her first year of employment for Matrix Global earns NIS 4,100 monthly, increasing to NIS 4,600 in her second year while other chareidi women with similar training elsewhere are earning NIS 5,500 after three months employment and NIS 7,000 in their second year. Margi points out that if one compares the salaries of the chareidi women to the general public, the discrimination is even more apparent.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)