On 13 June, 2007, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) submitted a petition to the High Court of Justice against the Employment Service and Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor, demanding that the Employment Service be prohibited from publicizing or recommending jobs that carry discriminatory demands for potential employees. The petition also asks that the Court require Employment Service employees to monitor the job offers it receives and publicizes, to examine them for discriminatory conditions, and to determine if such conditions are justified. In addition, ACRI demands in the petition that these employees report to the Enforcement of Labor Laws Department of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor in the event that employers submit job offers that include discriminatory demands. The petition was filed by ACRI attorney Sharon Abraham-Weiss.
The petition challenges the Employment Service’‘s unjustifiable policy of publicizing discriminatory job offers in its offices—offers that set limits, among other things, on the age of job candidates (stating a clear preference for younger workers). This policy contravenes the principle of equality and violates the directives of the Equal Opportunities at Work Law and the Employment Service Law. Despite ACRI’‘s repeated efforts over the past decade to bring this matter to the attention of the Employment Service and others, there has been no change in this unsound and unlawful policy. It continues despite explicit directives issued as early as 1999 to the Employment Bureau, following a discussion that included representatives from the Justice Ministry, the Employment Service, and ACRI. A sample check of job offers at the Employment Bureau in Holon in 2000, for example, revealed that the overwhelming majority (245 out of 248) included age-discriminatory demands, and that in 95% of the cases only job-seekers meeting those demands were sent by the Bureau for interviews.
Employment Service officials responded by saying that since the law prohibiting age discrimination in hiring is difficult to enforce, they choose to continue publicizing the [illegal] job offers submitted by employers. According to Atty. Abraham-Weiss, the claim that a government authority is permitted to violate the law because that law is not, in any case, being enforced, casts shame on the functioning of the authorities in Israel, and constitutes a cynical use of the lax approach of the enforcement authorities. Abraham-Weiss adds that the Service would have been better advised not to make these comments in writing.
Moreover, the Employment Service, in its response, shifts responsibility to job seekers themselves for reporting discriminatory practices to enforcement authorities. As the ACRI petition notes, filing a complaint is not a simple task, certainly not for unemployed job seekers. It is therefore obvious that it is the Employment Service, which is directly subordinate to the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor, that must be alert to violations of the law and report them when they occur. However, rather than fulfill its heightened obligation, as a public authority, to ensuring equality, the Employment Service has surrendered to the bitter reality of the job market, shut its eyes, and willingly taken part in discriminatory and illegal hiring practices.
ACRI’‘s petition argues that the worrying societal phenomenon of pushing older workers to the margins of society, thereby damaging their livelihood, dignity, and self-esteem, must be addressed—particularly when this phenomenon occurs within government authorities. The first obvious step toward remedying the situation is to implement the directives of the law.
Petition HCJ 5206/07
