• To detain the employees of a medical institution (to whom the law applies) individually or comprehensively ("Internal Recruits"). It is also permitted to recruit to the essential enterprise or the facility that provides an existential service, employee who does not work there during routine (”External Recruits”).    
• To cancel vacations.    
• To employ workers in extended shifts. Thus, workers can be employed in 12-hour shifts regardless of the scope of their duties during routine (and this, of course, also applies to employees to whom the Hours of Work and Rest Law does not apply).

Furthermore, following the Ministry of Health’s CEO Directive, trips abroad of health system employees were halted, and Department Managers issued instructions for the return of medical teams currently staying abroad.
 

As stated according to the law, and since a special situation was declared on the home front as of October 7, 2023, the Minister of Labor issued a specific order that allows the provisions of Chapter 4 of the law to be activated as detailed above.

By order of the Ministry of Health's Emergency Division, when Detaining Orders are issued to all institutions and organizations that provide medical services in an area that has been declared a "special situation on the home front," all employees in these institutions can be detained at the discretion of the organization's manager. That means that refusing to work while under a detaining order is grounds for dismissal.

As mentioned, according to the Emergency Labor Service Law 1967, it is impossible to call up for labor service or recruit: a soldier, a policeperson, a pregnant woman or a woman who gave birth less than one year ago, and also men or women who of retirement age or older.

The Emergency Labor Service Law 1967, exempts from labor service during emergency only pregnant women or women who gave birth less than one year ago. However, the law also stipulates that "when a woman who is a mother to children under her care is called for labor service, the difficulties that may be caused to the woman in caring for her children shall be considered," and that the Minister of Labor may, "after consultation with the Knesset Labor Committee, include in the regulations additional populations that would be exempt from labor service, be it a general exemption or qualified one." It seems that in this framework, therefore, the special difficulties of an employee, who is a mother of small children, shall be considered.           

See the following answer pertaining to physicians who are employed in the country. Regarding other places of employment, there is no answer in the law, but in similar cases in the past, workers who were forced to stay at home and take care of their children (up to 14 years of age) following the announcement of the Home Front Command, received compensation as if they had worked (for example, in Operation Oferet Yetzuka, or Operation Tzsuk Eitan).

During the Gulf War, Temporary Instructions were issued that allowed employees who were parents to children up to 14 years of age, and who were not called to work in accordance with the Emergency Labor Service Law, to be absent from work for the purpose of supervising their children, due to the closure of educational institutions, provided the other parent was not absent from work at the same time and that the workplace of neither parents provided arrangements for the workers' children. In these instructions there was no reference to absence due to sick family members.

Based on the directives issued during the Gulf War, in Operation Oferet Yetzuka and the spirit of the Labor Laws regarding absences due to childcare and dependent family members (spouse and dependent parent), it is likely that appropriate directives will be issued on this issue in the future as well, if and when a State of Emergency is declared.

We assume that if the special situation on the home front continues, the Civil Service Commission will give instructions in this regard. Inasmuch as no instructions were given by the Civil Service Commission and the special situation on the home front continues, physicians are required to report at their workplaces being existential health services.

The Civil Service Commission instructions must be followed daily.  

It should be noted, for example, that during Operation Tzuk Eitan, the Civil Service Commission determined in connection with certain days that the working day shall be counted as a full working day for employees who were absent from work for the purpose of supervising their children, due to the Home Front Command’s order to close educational institution or summer camps where the children should have stayed, provided that at the time of the absence two cumulative conditions were met:
 

A.    At the time of his absence, the educational institution/camp was located in areas defined by the Home Front Command as non-routine areas in terms of instructions and defense. 

B.    One of the following conditions applies to the employee, and he has declared this in writing:

•  The child is in the sole custody of the employee or the employee is the sole parent of the child.
•   The employee’s spouse is a salaried employee or self-employed, and is not absent from his/her work, business or occupation for the purpose of supervising the child, and if the spouse is not a salaried employee or self-employed, he/she is unable to supervise the child.  

The volunteer is covered for any damages that may be caused to him, if the body where he volunteers, regulates this in accordance with the Social Security Law and Social Security Regulations (Volunteers), 1978.

In order to receive the payment/s, each institution must draw up an orderly list of volunteers by filling out a volunteer referral form (confirmation of volunteer’s insurance at the Social Security Institute). It should be noted that the coverage provided under the Social Security Regulations (Volunteers) is identical to the rights of work accident victims and is not subject to a negligence examination.

Volunteers who will be harmed as a result of a war or terrorist event are also treated by the Social Security Institute according to the Compensation Law for Victims of Hostilities.

This arrangement applies to all physicians regardless of the identity of their employer.

A disabled person who is entitled, due to such event, to a disability compensation according to the Compensation Law for Victims of Hostilities and in addition to one of the following compensations, must choose one of them:

• General Disability.
• Any other compensation from the Ministry of Finance (excluding Reparations from Germany).
• Compensation according to the Civil Tort Law - if the disability was caused by a civil entity.
• Hostile injury which is also an industrial accident - if the hostile injury happened during working hours, or on the way from home to work or from work to home.

Regardless of their employer's identity, medical teams sent to reinforce government medical institutions by the Ministry's instructions or by volunteers' exchange, their professional liability within the government hospital territory shall be covered by the internal government insurance fund ("Inbal").
 

As for medical teams, civil servants sent to assist/work in medical institutions of Clalit HMO - the professional liability of the doctors who provide medical treatment in those institutions shall be covered by the insurer of that institution, and vice versa.

Regarding Malpractice Claims Against Volunteers, "Inbal" will, in accordance with the request of the Ministry of Health, cover the professional liability of volunteer physicians in the Southern District, insofar as they are sent there under the guidelines and instructions of the Ministry of Health to work wherever medical teams are needed.

As a general rule, an employee is entitled to salary only when he shows up for work and is ready to perform his duties or when absent from work for a reason that qualifies him to receive payment according to the law (annual leave, etc.).

If the employee does not show up for work, except for the above reason, he is not entitled, according to the law, to receive a salary. This is also the case when the employee is absent from work, completely or partially, due to a security situation, including due to the instructions of the security forces not to leave the homes.

Simultaneously, past experience shows that employers and the workers' organizations reached agreements, in retrospect, on partial payment for these days of absence, like partially utilizing vacation days to pay for that absence.

As of today, there is no normative, contractual or legal source obliging employers to pay salaries to physicians who are absent from work due to the directives of the Home Front Command.

There are many reasons for absenteeism during an emergency. There is no doubt that absence due to orders by the security forces cannot be grounds for dismissal. On the other hand, absence due to fear of leaving the house, which is not due to orders of the security forces, or due to lack of an educational setting for the children, etc. must be approved by the employer. Absence for these reasons without the employer's approval may be grounds for dismissal.
Of course, if a physician works at a place where detaining orders have been issued, which oblige him to report to work, his absence, as someone who is obligated to work during emergency, will be considered a criminal offense. 
 

No. According to law, an employer is prohibited from firing an employee called to reserve service during the service and for 30 days after it has ended.

The shortening of the workday is at the expense of the employee, but even in this regard it is possible that employee and employer organizations will reach an agreement regarding the payment of salaries, even if at a later stage.

According to the Annual Leave Law and labor courts rulings, setting a schedule of dates when employees may take vacations is one of the employer's powers, which must be exercised in consideration with the employee’s needs and coordination thereof.

The purpose of the annual leave is to give employees an opportunity to go on vacation in order to replenish their strength, without losing their salary.

The Annual Leave Law states that the start date of the leave shall be set at least fourteen days in advance. The law also requires that the leave will be continuous, unless the employee and the employer have reached a different agreement on this matter.

Given all the provisions detailed above, sudden instruction on annual leave for an unspecified period during wartime, shall not meet the provisions set forth by the law and the spirit of the law which attributes meaning to the nature of the leave.

However, one must remember that the provisions of the Annual Leave Law apply only to leaves granted by virtue of that law, and not to excess leave granted by virtue of the Civil Service Regulations, the Labor Constitution or other collective and individual agreements.

The calculation will be made in accordance with the calculation of the reserve payments for each reserve service: according to the average salaries received by the employee in the three months preceding the month of his departure to the reserve forces.

In accordance with the expansion ordinance regarding travel allowance, the travel allowance is limited to a specific ceiling. As long as an employee has not reached the aforementioned ceiling, and his travel expenses to work have increased as a result of moving to another place of residence, the doctor is entitled to an addition to his allowance, but only up to the ceiling set in the expansion order.