Kav LaOved (NGO) published a new report in English titled “National Insurance Institute (NII) and Non-Israeli Workers: Failures in treatment of claims presented by migrants, asylum seekers and Palestinian workers.” This report deals with the structure, management, and enforcement of the rights that the NII is legally required to provide to these three categories of workers. After assessing issues in the NII database that impose hardships upon non-Israeli workers, this report then examines in-depth the inadequate handling of work-related accidents insurance claims and maternity insurance claims on the part of the NII.
Palestinian workers from the occupied West Bank outside the Nil’in checkpoint, October 2013 (Photo: Activestills)
Kav LaOved has identified a pattern of NII shriking its responsibilities regarding workers who have suffered a work accident which resulted in delays in or even total lack of coverage of medical costs. Injury at work is often severe enough that it leads to cessation of work and thus loss of income. NII procedures for non-Israeli workers, force them to pay for ongoing medical services at their own expense at the very moment that they are most financially vulnerable. As a result, injured workers often forego the secondary, continuing treatments that are not covered by the private health insurance provided by their employer, in stark contrast to the situation of Israeli workers.
After it was initially published in Hebrew, a hearing was held in the Knesset Committee on Foreign Workers on December 9th, 2013. The head of the National Insurance Institute was attended, and Kav LaOved brought a number of case studies and proof that the institution is failing to serve non-Israeli workers. The meeting ended with the head of the NII claiming he will work to resolve the issue of work-related accident insurance for non-Israeli workers; in which they are inadequately covered by private insurance and NII only reimburses the costs of medical treatment from work accidents after a cumbersome bureaucratic process.
Related:
