Israel’s Caretakers

            Within the past few decades, the aged and the disabled are beginning to need more care and attention by others. In the Foreign Workers in Israel, chapter five discussed the Filipino Caregivers.  Women from the Philippines come to Israel mostly for domestic work and care giving. Drori writes how Filipino caretakers have been in Israel for work since the 1990s. The chapter goes on to say that “Filipino caregivers are working in Israel en masse and dominate the home care and domestic labor market”(p. 90).  Since 2002, there have been 30,000 Filipino immigrants coming to Israel for work. They come here for job opportunities to help their families and children back home.  Social networks between the Philippines and Israel organize jobs with potential clients.  The employment agency has certain rights and benefits such as their pay, living situation, and break times during their shifts. These parameters can easily be abused within certain families such as working longer than the caretakers are supposed to, which can be stressful and unfair at times. The Filipino women have gained a sense of community within Israel among other caregivers. On their days off, they spend times together and go to church. These women do not have family so this support system is all they have here when they work.

            The Drori piece was a few years outdated so it was interesting to try to find current news about Israel’s caregivers. Although it was a bit difficult, Irin news published new law targets migrant care workers. Irin news is a website that is coordinated by the Humanitarian Affairs of the United Nations. This article focused on the humanitarian treatment and issues the caregivers are facing which is why it was on this site. Although this article was published in 2012 and has no author, the points that it addressed are in the same issues that Drori’s article touched on. Although many women come from the Philippines, others come from Europe, and Asia.  Irin news reports that a Sri Lankan woman came to Israel for the job opportunity in order to pay for her children’s education. This same reason was stated in the Drori chapter as well. Pay was an issue for this caretaker. The Sri Lankan woman complained how she gets paid for an eight hour shift when she actually works all day. That is extremely unfair and stressful for a foreign worker to endure and deal with.  The eight hours that a caretaker does for an elderly person is already a lot on their hands and if they did not sign up for a 24 hour shift, it should not be allowed to force that on the caretakers.  The article goes on to inform that in 2011 a law passed in Israel where the caretakers are forbidden to change assignments more than three times and are also restricted to the locations they work. The happiness of the caretakers are clearly not a priority or concern by implementing this law. The fear of losing their jobs since they are also seen as disposable workers (since they are foreign) also is another reason why these women accept these laws.

            In March of this year, Times of Israel published an article about the rights of domestic workers saying that is Still dirty, dangerous, and demeaning.  The opinion piece by Jacob Udell compared America’s gain in domestic workers’ labor protection rights versus Israel’s. He stated that Israel has failed to protect the predominantly women caretakers in Israel.  This article discusses about the mistreatment that the caretakers endure such as working around the clock instead of their set hours.  This concern was mentioned in the previous article and in Drori’s. According to Udell, the care giving sector faces discrimination in labor laws that are passed in Israel. In 2013, the Israel High Court of Justice ruled that work and rest hours do not apply to caregivers. This law ensures that “other” jobs in the labor sector are required to have break times when they work over however it does not apply to caregivers. It seems they are ousted from the labor rules and law of other jobs.  This extends to also getting near or less than minimum wage for the work they put in which is manual labor and exhausting to a person.

            Within the chapter of Filipino workers, the article from the UN and the 2014 opinion piece on the Times of Israel, the population of migrant workers has grown from 30,000 to 60,000. Filipino women and other parts of Asia are the women who come to take these domestic positions. The presence of these women is growing in Israel and their mistreatment should be taken seriously since the elderly need caretakers. If there is not respect given to these workers, it will show in their work down the line which wont be fair to the workers or the clients.