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Kav La'Oved (Hebrew: קו לעובד "Worker's Hotline") is an Israeli non-profit association, founded in 1991. Its objective is to protect the rights of disadvantaged workers. It provides information, advice, and legal representation for the most deprived workers in Israel – migrant workers, Palestinian workers and Israeli low-wage earners.
Kav LaOved has four main branches in Israel (Tel-Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem, and Beersheba) and two extensions in the Palestinian Authority (offices in Qalqiliya) and Jericho, plus area coordinators for Palestinian workers employed in Israeli settlements in the West Bank). The organization has several staffers and dozens of volunteers who regularly work and provide individual help, collect information, and document the condition of disadvantaged workers in Israel. Ms. Hannah Zohar founded Kav LaOved and has served as its manager since then.
There are four aspects to the organization's efforts - the individual, public, education & advocacy, and civic enforcement aspects.
Individual – providing advice and legal representation for low-wage workers. Legal aid includes help on issues of Labour laws, Tax laws, National Insurance issues, Legal status in Israel, and arranging Work permits.
Public - Kav LaOved applies the substantial know-how and experience its staff has acquired in individual cases to work towards societal change. It does so by filing principled petitions to the courts, drawing up draft bills, and working vis-à-vis the Knesset (Israel's parliament), government offices and the media. The organization identifies and indicates phenomena and mechanisms of exploitation that disempower workers. With other organizations, Kav LaOved strives to amend laws and regulations and to introduce improvements in law-enforcement agencies.
Education & Advocacy – Raising awareness to worker rights, among others by writing and issuing mini-notebooks that list basic rights. The notebooks are printed in several languages, and their contents are featured on internet sites, in leaflets, and reports. Workshops for workers and lectures for the general public are also given.
Civic Enforcement – Working to protect worker rights by using enforcement mechanisms of state authorities, instead of turning to the courts. The term civic enforcement relates to alternative mechanisms: these include "naming and shaming" employers who violate worker rights, and encouraging workers and consumers to avoid associating with such employers. Kav LaOved documents complaints and rulings against employers and personnel contractors: it uses legal means to publish the names of employers and companies whose business operations have been defined by the authorities as flawed.
Kav LaOved operates in tandem with other non-government organizations (NGOs) such as Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Hotline for Refugees and Migrants, and Physicians for Human Rights – to change policy on matters of principle. Among others, the association is involved in the Forum for Enforcement of Worker Rights which focuses on the rights of contract-workers, in the Mandatory Pension Coalition, the Migrant Workers Forum, and in a joint project with some branches of the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU).
Kav LaOved is funded by donations from foundations and private donors.