Summary

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The ruling in Gluten v. The National Labor Court, which was handed down a decade ago and upheld on rehearing by an expanded Supreme Court panel, excluded migrant in-home care workers from the application of the Work and Rest Hours Law.

Employing unusual legal reasoning, the Court held that the Work and Rest Hours Law does not apply to migrant workers in the care sector, due to the special nature of care work. It further held that the exclusion of care workers from the Law serves to benefit both patients receiving care and care workers. The decision, described as the "Israeli Lochner", led to the widespread exclusion of tens of thousands of marginalized and vulnerable workers from cogent labor legislation.

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Although the two consecutive Gluten rulings called for legislative intervention and regulation of the long working hours of care workers and their compensation, in the decade since, no significant attempt has been made in furtherance of any such legislation. Nearly a decade later, care workers continue to be excluded from the Work and Rest Hours Law; a central pillar of the protections provided by Israeli labor law to workers.

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This event seeks to assess the implications of the Gluten decision in the decade since it was handed down, and to reflect on trends, possibilities, and opportunities for the post-Gluten era.

The event is open to the public and will be held mostly in Hebrew.