Shift work: legal arrangements and rights

Service page: A claim against an employer for wages, pension and overtime.

Shift work: rights that most employees do not know about

You work nights and receive a regular base wage: no night supplement, no pay for work on Shabbat, no overtime under the law. The official line? “It’s all included.” But a wage set as including overtime pay or pay for work during the weekly rest is treated as a regular wage only (section 5 of the Wage Protection Law).

What is “shift work”?

Shift work is work that is divided into several shifts a day, with different employees replacing one another. Sometimes the shifts rotate in a cycle. The Hours of Work and Rest Law sets limits on working hours and on rest between shifts.

Limits on hours: a baseline that must not be crossed

• Maximum working day: 8 hours; in night work, and on the day before the weekly rest or before a holiday on which there is no work, 7 hours (section 2)
• Maximum work week: 45 hours under the Law (section 3), and 42 hours under the Extension Order on Shortening the Work Week (צו ההרחבה בדבר קיצור שבוע העבודה), since 1 April 2018
• Rest between one working day and the next: at least 8 hours (section 21)
• Overtime: 125% for the first two overtime hours on the same day, and 150% for each overtime hour after them (section 16)

Unpaid overtime can be claimed up to 7 years back. Keep your payslips.

May you work a double shift? The law does not use the term “double shift”. Hours beyond the working day in section 2 are overtime (section 1), and employment in overtime is prohibited unless it is allowed under section 10 or permitted by a permit under section 11 (section 6). When working in shifts, section 10(a)(2) allows one hour of overtime a day, provided the average over three weeks does not exceed 45 working hours a week; beyond that a permit under section 11 is needed, unless another case in section 10 applies. As a rule, every overtime hour earns pay under section 16, and a break of at least eight hours is required between one working day and the next (section 21).

Shift supplement: what are you entitled to?

The Hours of Work and Rest Law does not set a general pay supplement for an evening or night shift; such a supplement comes only from a collective agreement, an industry extension order or the employment contract, so check the arrangement that applies in your industry. The law does limit night work: “night work” is work of which at least two hours fall between 22:00 and 06:00 (section 1), a working day in it may not exceed 7 hours (section 2(b)), and in an enterprise that works in shifts, an employee may not be employed in night work for more than one week in every two weeks (section 22).

Weekly rest: a firmly protected right

The weekly rest is at least 36 consecutive hours, which for a Jewish employee include Saturday (Shabbat), and for someone who is not Jewish, Saturday, Sunday or Friday, according to what is customary for them (section 7). Employment during the weekly rest is prohibited without a permit (sections 9 and 12), and someone employed during it is entitled to pay of at least 150% of their regular wage (section 17).

Changing the shift schedule: can the employer do it? Assignment to shifts is part of the terms of employment. According to case law, a material change, such as moving from fixed shifts to rotating shifts, may be regarded as a one-sided change in the terms of employment. An employee who does not agree may turn to the Labor Court and demand compensation or the cancellation of the change.

What do you do when the employer doesn’t pay?

If you find out that you were not paid a shift supplement, overtime or pay for work on Shabbat, these are the steps:

1. Collect evidence: payslips, records of hours (an app, an attendance card, WhatsApp messages with the shift schedule).
2. Calculate the gap: how many night hours did you work? How many Saturdays? What is the difference between what was paid and what is due?
3. Write to the employer: a formal email asking for payment of the difference. It is documented and requires a response.
4. File a claim with the Labor Court: the Regional Labor Court is relatively accessible, even without a lawyer. See also: a wage claim against an employer.