In September 2007, ACRI provided its expert testimony as “amicus curiae” (friend of the court) in the case of a manpower agency petitioning the Tel Aviv Administrative Court against the Bat Yam Municipality and the manpower agency the city hired for cleaning services. The petitioning company claimed that the terms of the tender for services awarded by the Municipality to the winning manpower agency precluded it from ensuring the rights of the subcontracted workers that it hired. The Municipality and the manpower agency that was awarded the tender argued that they are only obliged to pay the subcontracted workers minimum wage; ACRI and the petitioning manpower agency (which had lost the bid for the tender) claimed, in accordance with a directive issued by the General Accountant of the Finance Ministry in March 2007, that the tender must ensure that all workers are paid minimum wage as well as all social benefits to which they are entitled according to collective bargaining agreements. The terms of the tender did not enable the winning contractor to do so; this situation is known as a “loss tender.” As a result, the Municipality and the winning manpower agency violated the employment rights of their workers as well as their right to dignity.
In its testimony, ACRI provided data showing that the rights of the subcontracted workers employed by the winning contractor were systematically violated, with workers earning 30% less than the minimum wage and working 14-hour days. In a precedent-setting ruling issued in April 2008, the court instructed the Bat Yam Municipality to cancel the tender, while accepting the arguments put forth by the petitioners and amicus curiae. As such, the court placed the responsibility for ensuring that subcontracted workers are paid in accordance with the law on the public authority that orders a service through a contractor.
