Hiring someone in Israel requires the employer to follow quite a few labor laws and rules. Here are the 10 basic priniciples we came up with (the list isn’t trying to cover all or even most of them but just give the main course):

1. Announcement of work terms – whereas “work agreement” is not mandatory, an “announcement of work terms” is a must. It is basic, short and efficient form the employer and the employee sign on after negotiating the terms and conditions of the employment. Important: whenever there’s a change of work terms, the employer must send it to the employee printed/written.
2. 101 form – the employee must fill out and sign the 101 form that would determine all the tax benefits this employee is entitled to.
3. Attendance recording – the employer must record the work hours of the employee, whether digitally (online software’s), electronically (attendance clock) or manually (asking the employee to sign next to it). This would back up the employer in case of future potential law suits for unpaid work hours by the employees.
4. Pay slip – after paying by the 10ths of the next month, the employer must send a monthly pay slip to the employee with all the salary and work hours information.
5. Extra hours – the compensation for extra hours should be examined on a weekly and daily bases. A full work day is 8.4 hours (8 hours and 24 min) so the 9^th and 10^th work hours’ worth is extra 125% and the 11^th and 12^th hours’ worth is 150%. In addition, a full work week is 42 hours (for 5 work days a week) and if the employee worked more than 42 hours during the week, he/she should get paid for extra hours. Important: Both sides are allowed to agree on global extra time compensation that would be paid regardless of extra work hours made.
6. Pension deposits – the employer must deposit to a pension fund of the employee after 6 months of work (if the employee didn’t have an active fund before) and after 3 months of work (retroactively since day 1) if the employee already has an active fund from previous employer. The employer should deposit 14.33% out of pocket (up until the average salary in IL) and another 6% should be deducted from the employee’s salary.
7. Recovery payments – after a year of work the employee is entitled to recovery payment. The payment is calculated by seniority and amount of days by law, whereas the minimum is 5 days * 378 NIS in the private sector.
8. Hearing – In case an employer wants to fire an employee, he has to make a proper hearing to the employee that would be scheduled in advance (2-3 days before). And Before that, the employer has to provide the employee in hand with the reasons he wants to fire him. During the hearing the employer should sincerely hear the employee’s claims and explanations and then give him his decision after an honest consideration of his arguments made in the hearing.
9. Notice in advance for termination of relations – the employer should give the employee a notice in advance of the termination of their work relations. Up to 6 months of work entitles 1 day notice per month; more than 6 months but less than 12 gives extra 2.5 days’ notice per months; and over a year entitles to a full month of notice in advance.
10. Termination of work – at the leas pay slip the employee should get unpaid vacation days and accumulated recovery days. In addition, the employer should send the employee a 161 form that includes the detailed reimbursement funds that the employee is entitled to and can now withdraw.