First publication in Haredim 10: This week, a request was submitted to the Tel Aviv Regional Labor Court by attorney Anat Shani-Rava and attorney Pini Kalman to approve a class action lawsuit, in the amount of 28,000,000 shekels, against the 'Independent Education' network.
'The Independent Education Center, which is controlled by the Degel Hatorah party and other entities, is considered the largest employer in the Haredi community, employing tens of thousands of workers, while operating hundreds of Torah schools and schools throughout the country, fully funded by the state.
The petition to approve a class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of two teachers who claim that the 'Independent Education' deducts from the teachers' salaries every month a 'contribution' to the non-profit organization under its control that finances its activities - the 'Torah Education Fund', at a rate of 21% of their salary, and this is done unlawfully and without their consent, unilaterally, for a period of at least five years from the beginning of their employment.
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The application submitted to the Regional Labor Court stated that "this conduct was taken by the respondent, according to the applicants' knowledge, towards the other male and female teachers employed by him, at least up to five years of seniority in the standard and above, and in some cases the deduction continued for many years.
""The applicants request that their claim in this component be approved as a class action, so that the teachers who were and are employed by the respondent will receive reimbursement for the deductions from their salaries, which were made unlawfully and in violation of the Wage Protection Law, 1958.".
Plaintiff No. 1 is Hannah Rivka Hartman, 35 years old, a mother of four children, who works as a teacher in an advanced classroom during the month of July 2012, filling a vacancy, and since September 2014 as a teacher in an advanced classroom at a school in Rachsim. Since March 2019, she has been on unpaid leave and is awaiting placement in the next school year.
Plaintiff No. 2 is Tamar Malrich, 36 years old, a mother of eight children who was employed in independent education as a teacher in schools in the north from 2003 until the end of her employment at the end of her leave of absence from work.
The application submitted to the court stated: "To date, Applicant 2 has not been paid her rights for the termination of her employment and she is awaiting final settlement in the hope that she will not be required to file a lawsuit to receive what she is entitled to in this regard.".
According to the lawyers, "the applicants were employed under abusive employment conditions, contrary to the provisions of the law and the applicable teaching staff service regulations, when amounts were illegally deducted from their salaries for an association affiliated with the respondent.".
According to the submitted application, the 'Torah Education Fund' is an association "that actually finances part of its activities and is used to employ teachers, assistants, educational counselors, finance transportation, maintain the respondent's schools and even pays the salary of a school principal, and more.".
The lawyers point out that the association's address is in Independent Education and the office bearers of the Independent Education also serve in the 'Torah Education Foundation.' Thus, Rabbi Eliyahu Mordechai Karelitz and Rabbi Aryeh Dvir, both members of the respondent's management and authorized signatories as well as committee members and authorized signatories in the Torah Education Foundation; Mr. Isaac Goldstein, director of the respondent's payroll department and someone involved in the legal proceedings of the respondent's employees, serves in the Torah Education Foundation in the role of committee member and authorized signator. The association's legal advisor is the respondent's legal advisor, the association's goals are the same as those of the respondent ('ongoing activities to promote education') and in fact it is a body that operates as an integral part of the activities of the "Independent Education Foundation.".
The financial statements of the Torah Education Fund show that each year, an amount of between three and four million shekels was received from the employees of the independent education center, as part of a donation deduction from their salaries.
According to the lawyers, the total accumulated deductions from Applicant 1's salary amount to 4,573.84 shekels, and the total accumulated deductions from Applicant 2's salary amount to an estimated 6,000 shekels.
The lawyers state: "Financing the respondent's activities through deductions from the salaries of his employees, who depend on him for their livelihood, is illegal on its face - and the severity is even more severe in the circumstances in which this is a body whose entire activity is funded by the State of Israel. This is similar to the situation in which teachers employed in a state school would be required to pay money to finance additional study hours or transportation for children studying at the educational institution.".
They add and emphasize: "The applicants were never asked for their consent to the deduction of their salary, and in any case it is doubtful whether they were asked whether this consent was valid, given that it was a necessity and obligation on the part of the respondent as part of their employment with him, and when the respondent constitutes a kind of 'monopoly' for the employment of teaching staff in the Haredi public and has significant control over the ability to determine the employment of employees, the scope of the position, and the place of work - for employees and their family members - future employees.".
It should be noted that despite an appeal from the Registrar of Associations on the subject, the deduction continues to this day.
The application further states: "The respondent deducted from the applicants' salaries from the date of commencement of their employment at a standard deduction rate of approximately 21% of their salaries and at a certain point also from their clothing allowance as a permanent 'contribution' to the Torah Education Fund. This deduction was made without the applicants' requesting it and without their consent being sought, by a unilateral decision of the respondent.".
""This request seeks to rectify this situation and result in the respondent being required to compensate all employees who were employed by him as teachers in the standard during the last seven years of work (and the employees, to the extent that a deduction was made from their salary as well).
""The Honorable Court is requested to approve the plaintiffs' claim on the grounds of deduction from wages for the Torah Education Fund and to approve them as representative plaintiffs, to define the group of eligible employees as the group of teachers (and unfortunately also employees) from whose wages a deduction was made for the Torah Education Fund, to determine the method of calculating compensation for each employee for the cause and to award financial compensation for the financial relief due to each employee for the cause or to order the granting of other relief in favor of the group or part of it, to order that the group's representatives be Adv. Anat Shani-Rava and Adv. Pini Kalman, to order the publication of a notice of the claim and to award compensation to the representative plaintiffs and their representatives.".
The lawyers say in the application submitted to the court that on January 3, 2021, a written request was made to the Independent Education Center regarding the invalid deduction, in which it received a warning that if the deduction is not stopped and not refunded to the employees, a class action lawsuit will be filed against it.
""The respondent requested a two-week extension to respond to it, but as of the date of submission of the request, claiming lack of accessibility to the documents, and also gave his consent to the extension of the statute of limitations for a period of one month, but even though more than a month has passed, he has not submitted any response to the substance of the matter and in any case has not announced the cancellation of the deduction or returned it.".
The lawyers emphasize: "In bad faith, the respondent attempted to correct his unlawful conduct retroactively and asked his employees to sign approval of the deductions retroactively after receiving this letter, which is the best indication that these were deductions that were made illegally.".
The lawyers write to the court: "Below will be an assessment of the size of the group and the scope of the class action lawsuit in the cause of action, based on external data.
""The respondent employs approximately 17,000 teaching staff, at least half of whom are full-time, if not more. According to the respondent's correspondence with the Corporations Authority, the respondent deducts a contribution to the Torah Education Fund from the salaries of at least 3,600 employees. Therefore, the relevant group size is an estimated number of 4,000 employees annually.
""The represented group will therefore include all employees who were employed by the respondent in the seven years prior to the submission of this application and from whose salaries a contribution to the Torah Education Fund was deducted. The complete data regarding the members of the group is in the possession of the respondent, and can be easily retrieved. Therefore, the respondent should be required to provide the applicant with all the data necessary for an accurate calculation of the size of the group and the amounts due to each employee. Under these circumstances, the applicant's calculations are based on estimates.
""According to the Torah Education Fund's reports, it receives between 3.5 and 4 million shekels annually in donations from the respondent's employees, and therefore the applicants estimate the amount of the claim at 28 million shekels for the last seven years.
""It is worth noting that although the scope of the claim is ostensibly large, for each teacher it is not a significant scope and the size of the claim stems from the large number of teachers employed by the respondent.".
No response was received from independent education to the Haredim 10 request.
