No, we are not in Chelm, although sometimes I really wonder. And yes you did read the title of this blog post correctly.
The government is busy passing laws. Here’s an example in how they force employees to donate to the “righteous causes”, this one is called “help businesses in distress”. No one knows yet what the criteria are to receive this help but one thing is sure – we all have to pay and that has been made crystal clear with the recently passed law.
Well there’s the good news and the bad. I’ll start with the good news – this is a one time deal for Sept 2009’s pay slip (paid in October) and the employer will also be donating the same.
The bad news is this is the government of Israel’s holiday gift to the citizens – a one time donation equal to one half of a day’s vacation pay to be added to each employee’s social security (bituach leumi) deduction ! (The calculation is half of the monthly pay divided by 30).
The only employees and employers exempt from this “donation” are the public sector employees (i.e. government workers) and employees in the domestic help sector.
I guess it pays to be a productive public sector employee !
