According to some estimates current 2022 “wartime Aliya” may reach up to 800 000 and thus become the second in magnitude wave of repatriation after the Great Aliya from the USSR in early 90s.
And all these people will arrive at the Israeli labor market, which is quite peculiar and not always welcoming to the people from the former USSR. Representatives of Dor Moria investigated potential difficulties that may be encountered by the Russian speaking Israelis and what steps may be undertaken to protect their labor rights when they are employed in one of the most popular sector – installation of solar panels.
Arbeit Macht Frei
«Don’t walk. People must run here. If not, you can easily be replaced»: — shouts kablan at the workers installing solar panels. “You may not stand or seat, you must be constantly moving even when you have nothing to do».
In Israel kablans is the name for subcontractors outsourced by big companies. It is done in order to reduce social security expenses and wages. Israel is Clondyke for kablans – they are used by a quarter of employers, whilst in USA and in Western Europe it amounts to only 5%.
But even with kablan intermediation it is fairly difficult to find work with wages 35-40 shekels per hour. And such work would last 12-14 hours a day, including transportation time. Of course one can get registered with different groups and with Employment Bureau. Butit could hardly help.
Work that brings you 420 shekels a day for 8 hours at the open air looks attractive. Installation of solar panels is highly sought employment compared to assembly lines, plastic manufacturing and night time inventory management predominantly offered by employment bureaus – it promises short work hours and comparatively high wages. It offers some degree ofeconomic freedom.
In Israel solar energy generation is aggressively introduced all over the country. Solar plants are built on the roofs, on top of water reservoirs in kibbutz and farms. It is a very dynamic sector supported by investors and privileged loan schemes. Global warming campaign provides some political agenda to these projects. The Ministry of Energy plans to increase energy generation from renewable sources from 17 to 30% by the year 2030. Essentially such ambitious plan needs a great contingent of hired hands that now coming to Israel.
You should have started yesterday
I dial a number given in a notice «need workers for installing solar panels on roofs and water reservoirs.». Cheerful voice answers me that work is not difficult and you do not need any training, work hours from 6.30 to 15.00, rate 420 shekels a day, transportation provided. Subcontractor, let us call him Oleg, tells me that you should have started yesterday, the work requires a lot of physical activity. You can get cash, or you can be officially registered in the payroll ledger. There is even a mixed option available – partially you get cash andpartially from official ledger. That is done in order not to reach 9000 after which you would have to pay much higher tax. Black market employment includes a significant part of solar panels installation sector. And the question whether solar generation companies are aware of the fact that their subcontractors breach the Israeli legislation is purely rhetorical.
Subcontractor Oleg included me into a Whatsup group which publishes notices about next day vacancies after 20.00 and provides transportation arrangements. Transportation is provided by cars with 4-5 passengers. Work starts at 6.30, correspondingly you need to leave Haifa at 4.30-5.00. The car picks up workers en route and the trip lasts 2 hours one way. Naturally transportation costs are not covered.
As I was informed by kablan work ends at 15.00, that is it lasts 8 hours plus 30 minutes for a lunch break. You must be moving 8 hours non-stop and you can relax for only 30 minutes during the lunch break. But this arrangement normally is not observed and the work ends at 15.20. To persuade kablan Oleg that these 20 minutes a day add up to a decent sum by the end of the month which he pockets is impossible.
Weather
At my first work day they brought us to the Jordan border to a desalination pond for farm water. All over Israel they install floating solar plants on such ponds.
They gave us helmets and light reflecting vests in compliance with industrial safety requirements. Whatever else needed we have to provide ourselves.
The work consists of assembling panels together and moving them to the water There are several designs of assembly with different types of floats, types of panels and different ways of assembly into a single floating unit. There are some fairly simple designs and some are more complicated. At new sites local engineers may spend weeks trying to understand specifics of the design, sometimes they need to reassemble panels. Design drawings often have nothing to do with real hardware, hence they use try and fail technique.
Outdoor work has its advantages and disadvantages. Two main disadvantages are called the sun and the rain. In winter during rainy season there is no work when it rains and the downtime is not paid. We get to know if the work is available after 20.00. I do not know what weather forecast agency Oleg uses but it often happened that the work was cancelled due to the rain forecast, but the rain did not show up. Sometimes you get up at 4.00 and at 5.00 you learn that the work is cancelled due to the rain forecast. During some winter months you work 10 days only, which essentially affects your wages. In spring the sun becomes a major natural disadvantage. The sun turns it into hell. The panels are so hot it is impossible to touch them, the air is exceedingly hot and you are lucky if there is no dust in the air. Shoe soles sometimes melt, you can get a burn if you accidentally touch the hardware, Workers often get sunstroke. They are taken then into the shadow to cool down.
Work schedule when you have to move non-stop for 8 hours without relax leads to excessive heating, which is a health hazard. Drinking water is a separate issue. Inwinter water is not supplied to the site. Workers need to bring their own water. In summer water is brought in tanks, but often the water supply is not sufficient – in hot weather people drink a lot.
Proletarian International
The team consists of Russian speakers from all over dormer Soviet Union. Repatriates from Russia, Ukraine. Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kirgistan, Moldova, Belorusand also representatives of Ethiopian community and Sabres. But Russian speakers are in majority. Newcomers work together with oldtimers with more than 20 years of Israeli labor market experience.
Kolya from Kazakhstan, Igor from Uzbekistan, Sasha from the Transcarpathian, Oleg from the Crimea, Alexei from Saint-Petersburg and many other from the former Soviet Union keep together in Israel and they enjoy rather low social and economic status. Many in the team used to work at plastic factories, did night stock inventory, unloaded containers and ended up with assembling solar panels.
When I ask how long have they been working here, it turns out that no longer than 4 months. Not all cansurvive the burning sun. Then after a year of such employment they are entitled to get various social benefits. It is not profitable for the kablan. Much easier is to get rid of a worker before the deadline.
With the dissidents kablan Oleg coped easily. If somebody started to ask too many questions, the kablanexcluded him from mailing of vacancies for the next day, which means loss of money and employment. This trick he repeated with many dissidents and with those who had asked for a day off without notice.
Oleg did not choose between sticks and carrots in his incentive schemes. He used stick exclusively, shouting “move, move” also he used downtime as warning to dissidents. Obviously all “carrots” he left for himself.
Unfortunately workers are unaware of health protection regulations pertaining to time limitation under scorching sun, to haw many breaks a worker is entitled to have, to water supply arrangements and provision of protective garments. Even foremen that worked over a year have difficulties trying to get this information.
Tall and rather phlegmatic foreman from Moldova, Alex, told that he tried to find health protection regulations pertaining to time limitations under the scorching sun, but could not. Me, being a veteran of trade union movement and a member of Gistadruga for more than 4 years, promised him to get something from the trade union.
Trade Unions – Lessons Unlearned
I have my personal experience with labor protection issues. I was always “lucky” with my employers. My first employer for whom I worked one and a half year has not even been registered with Bitaukh Leump(Institute for National Insurance) and all his insurance certificates were faked. My second employer disappeared after pandemic without paying social insurance for two years of work and without issuing an official discharge notice. Just disappeared into the blue. I have personal experience that nobody is prepared to protect labor rights of the repatriates. The only remaining option is to use a lawyer and if you are lucky enough you can get your money back through the court, but it may take not less than a year.
Both times I could not get any assistance or any consultation in Russian in Haifa Department of Gistradrut (Trade Union Confederation), although I was a trade union member.
My personal negative experience with Gistradrut forcedme to look for other independent trade unions. This intension was substantiated by the data: number of Gistradrut members fell down from 85% to 26% for the last 20 years. And the trend persists. With larger public companies like Electric Company or Israel Railroad Company Gistradrut has some influence on corporate policy through its connection with politicians and public servants. But predominant majority or workers, especially in private companies and recruitment agencies could not protect their rights through the trade unions and they have to face high-handedness of employers alone.
Theoretically in Israel mechanism of labor protection is available through the trade unions and collective agreements with employers stipulating labor conditions and arrangements. In views of dynamic development of solar energy sector one could expect setting up solar energy sector dedicated trade union or a branch in the existing trade union. Similar trade union exist for securities and carers. I witnessed setting up trade union branch for the carers in Gistradrut, how a collective agreement was signed between Gistradrut, BituakhLeumi and the Carers Association. But Gistradrut is a too clumsy bureaucratic machine which could be reached from the above only. In case of carers setting up a dedicated branch in Gistradrut was lobbied by MP TaliPloskova.
I arranged a meeting with Maan independent trade union coordinator Joavom Gal Tamir who explained to me all difficulties involved in setting up trade union with production companies. First, to set up a branch it is necessary to have 30% of employees that worked for the company at least 6 months that support setting up a branch and becoming a member. That is a major stumbling block for the procedure. Nobody knows how many work teams uses kablan and on what sites. Besides, as it was stated above, very few work for longer than 4 months and majority work illegally without official registration. Moreover, it is difficult to explain advantages provided by trade union membership, whilst disadvantages are clear – you would have to pay membership fees and your employer may just fire you for such initiative.
Situation with labor protection in solar energy sector stays on the level of Israeli jungle capitalism. Workers officially employed by large public companies and workers hired by kablans for similar jobs these are two different social classes with different wages and social protection arrangements. It should be noted that the main supporter of such discrimination is the state of Israel. To provide full package of social protection and insurance is a great burden on the budget. That is why all this socialist rhetoric is reserved for the Sabres and other privileged social groups. For repatriates from the former Soviet Union it is jungle capitalism only.
Before election of new Chairman of Gistradrut, which will take place on May 24, 2022, it would probably be instrumental to offer this politically important mission to the competitors which are prepared to pay attention to the situation in solar generation sector. Maybe present Gistradrut Chairman Arnon Ben David or his competitor Ofer Ani will take care of this problem out of PR consideration.
There are some pending questions to be answered:
I sent a query to the Israeli Institute of Industrial Safety and Labor Hygiene and I am waiting for their answer and for continuation of the discussion.
Igor Kaminnik
