Maternity leave: how many weeks, and protection from dismissal

Service page: Unlawful dismissal: when, what you are entitled to and how to sue.

Maternity leave is one of the strongest rights in Israeli employment law. But “strong” does not mean “simple”. Employers complicate things, calculations go wrong, and employees who do not know their rights lose weeks and money. This is the guide worth reading before the birth.

How many weeks of maternity leave is an employee entitled to?

The answer depends on your seniority with the same employer:

You have worked 12 months or more: you are entitled to 26 weeks of maternity leave. Of these, 15 weeks are fully paid (the allowance is paid by the National Insurance Institute, not by the employer). The remaining 11 weeks are unpaid. You can choose to take only part of them, or to give them up and go back to work earlier.

You have worked less than 12 months: you are entitled to 15 weeks only. But all of them are paid (if you met the conditions of the National Insurance Institute).

You can start maternity leave up to 7 weeks before the expected date of birth.

What happens if the leave has to be extended?

The baby may stay in hospital after the birth (or be hospitalized again) for more than two weeks. Then you are entitled to extend your maternity leave by a period equal to the hospitalization, up to 20 more weeks. This is under section 6(d) of the Women’s Employment Law, subject to conditions. Were you yourself hospitalized during maternity leave for more than two weeks? Then there is an extension of up to 4 weeks (section 6(b1) of the Law). This is a right worth knowing about.

Protection from dismissal: how broad is it?

The Women’s Employment Law forbids dismissal in the following periods, and this is not advice, it is the law:

During the whole pregnancy, a dismissal requires a special permit (section 9(a) of the Law). This applies to an employee with at least 6 months of seniority with the same employer or at the same workplace. The permit comes from the Women’s Employment Law commissioner at the Ministry of Labor. The fifth month of pregnancy is relevant only to the employee’s duty to tell the employer about the pregnancy (section 10 of the Law). During the maternity leave itself, there is an absolute prohibition, with no exception. In the 60 days after the end of the birth and parenting period, a dismissal is possible only with a permit (section 9(c)(1a)). A permit will be given only if the dismissal is not connected to the birth. And the employer’s business must have stopped operating, or the employer was declared bankrupt, or a winding-up order was given against it.

An employer that dismisses an employee in the protected period without a permit commits a criminal offense (section 14(a) of the Law). The Labor Court may award compensation even without financial damage (section 13A(a)(1)). The court may find that the employee was dismissed in breach of section 9. Then it will award compensation of at least 150% of the wages she would have been entitled to in the qualifying period (section 13A(b)). As a rule, that is from the day of dismissal until the end of the protected period. The court may set a different amount for special reasons that it records. This is in addition to severance pay.

The father’s rights: not only “taking time off”

The father can go on maternity leave, but this is not a separate paternity leave. He takes part of the maternity leave that accrues to the mother. This is how it works:

From the seventh week of maternity leave, the mother can go back to work, and the father goes on leave instead of her. The payment (maternity allowance) is paid to the father according to his own wages. The two parents cannot be on leave at the same time, except for one week (section 6(h)(1b) of the Women’s Employment Law). The father may take a birth and parenting period of seven days at the same time as the mother. The condition is that she has waived in writing the maternity allowance for the last week.

This is especially relevant when the two parents earn different wages: it is worth checking what pays off better for the family.

What happens when you go back to work?

The dismissal restriction applies for a period, including the 60 days after the end of the birth and parenting period. In that period, the employer may not reduce the scope of the position or the income without a permit (section 9A of the Women’s Employment Law). Even after that, harming the terms of employment because of pregnancy or parenthood is forbidden discrimination. This is under section 2 of the Employment (Equal Opportunities) Law, 5748-1988 (חוק שוויון ההזדמנויות בעבודה, התשמ״ח-1988). The employer cannot change the terms, cut the wages or move the employee to another role on the pretext that the position “was abolished”.

Temporary Provision (31 March 2026 to 31 March 2027): some unpaid leave is not counted in the 60 days after the birth and parenting period, if it falls within them. This covers unpaid leave of at least 10 consecutive days that the employer put an employee on during the period defined in the Temporary Provision. In certain cases, it also covers at least five consecutive days that began on 28 February or 1 March 2026. This extends the protection period (section 9(c)(2c) of the Women’s Employment Law). Some absences during the period defined in the Temporary Provision are not a forbidden reduction of the scope of the position or of income (section 9A(a2)). This covers an absence because of instructions under the Protection of Employees in Emergencies Law, 5766-2006 (חוק הגנה על עובדים בשעת חירום, התשס״ו-2006).

In addition, an employee who works in a full-time position (or at least 174 hours a month) is entitled to a “parenthood hour”. That is, she may be absent for one hour a day without a cut in wages (section 7(c)(3) of the Women’s Employment Law). This lasts for 4 months from the end of the birth and parenting period, and not from the day of the birth.

Employees who worked in a part-time position before the birth return to the same part-time position. They may not be required to return to a full-time position.

Conditions and deadlines: maternity leave and protection from dismissal

A hypothetical example: an employee started work on 1 May 2025, and her expected date of birth is 1 February 2027. When she goes on the birth and parenting period, she will have worked for the employer for more than 12 months. So she is entitled to 26 weeks (section 6(b)(1) of the Women’s Employment Law). Up to 7 of those weeks can be before the expected date of birth. She completed six months of work on 1 November 2025. Since then, dismissing her during pregnancy requires a permit (section 9(a)). After the end of the period, there are another 60 days in which a dismissal is allowed only with a permit (section 9(c)(1a)). The rules are according to the wording of the Law as of 4 October 2026.

What to keep

• The notice to the employer about the pregnancy, with the date it was given.
• Documents confirming your hospitalization or the child’s, if you asked to extend the period.
• The written notice of the date of return to work, and what was decided about the scope of the position.
• The payslips from the months before the leave and the months after the return.
• Any letter about a change of role, wages, scope of the position, or about a dismissal.

Common mistakes

A few common myths worth taking apart:

“The employer pays the maternity allowance”: no. The National Insurance Institute pays it. The employer only provides the documents.

“A self-employed woman gets nothing”: not true. A self-employed woman who pays National Insurance contributions is entitled to a maternity allowance according to the contributions she paid.

“Maternity leave is 3 months”: no. It is 26 weeks (about 6 months) for anyone who met the seniority conditions.