Ten trade unions have accused Israel of breaching international labor law by holding back pay and benefits from more than 200,000 Palestinian workers since 7 October.

The Israeli government stands accused of “blatant” violations of the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) protection of wages convention, tipping many Palestinians into extreme poverty.

Workers from Gaza and the West Bank, employed in Israel, did not receive payment for work completed prior to last October – when Hamas militants led an attack that killed nearly 1,200 people in southern Israel – and have received no wages since, according to the complaint ...

A complaint filed on Friday aims to recover the wages of Palestinian workers who previously worked in Israel.

“Two hundred thousand workers in the West Bank lost their jobs,” said Assaf Adiv, executive director of Maan Workers Association ... “They did not receive any compensation and have been suffering ever since from extreme poverty.

[...]

Israel revoked work permits for about 13,000 Palestinian workers from the Gaza Strip to work legally in Israel following the Hamas attack on 7 October, according to a legal brief on the complaint, leaving those workers with unpaid wages from September and October. Those wages would have normally been paid on 9 October.

An additional nearly 200,000 Palestinian workers from the West Bank employed in Israel have not been permitted to enter Israel, and have received no termination notices, according to the brief, which argues they are owed wages stipulated by their employment contracts for their previous work and subsequent months.

[...]

The trade unions behind the complaint represent some 207 million workers across more than 160 countries. They include the Building and Wood Workers’ International, Education International, the IndustriAll Global Union, the International Federation of Journalists, the International Trade Union Confederation, the International Transport Workers’ Federation, the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations, Public Services International, and UNI Global Union. The Trade Union Advisory Committee to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development also signed on to the complaint.