Labour Law in Israel: New Directions

Abstract

The study of labour law in Israel need not start before the occupation of Palestine by the British at the end of the First World War. The inheritance left to the British by the collapsing Ottoman Empire in many fields of law, and especially in labour law, was meagre and primitive. As a matter of fact, the Ottoman system did not even acknowledge the existence of labour law as such. Only a few provisions concerning labour could be found on the statute book, intermingled with provisions regulating the hire of chattels and animals.During the Mandatory period, the British took it upon themselves to modernise local law. This, indeed, they accomplished in many fields of law. But labour law remained an exception. In this field they preferred to do as little as possible. This may be largely explained by their unwillingness to disturb the social and economic order which had prevailed in Arab society for centuries. Thus, the few labour laws enacted by the British up to the Second World War set very minimal standards. For example, the Women and Children (Industrial Employment) Ordinance of 1927 prohibited the employment of children under twelve years; but even this prohibition applied only to factories and workshops, and not to agriculture and other trades.