(1) For these hours, the employer will pay him a wage of no less than 1/21 of his regular salary. If the employee's wages, in whole or in part, according to the quantity of produce, the employer shall pay him for each unit made during the weekly rest hours a wage of not less than 1/21 of the wage paid for each unit made during regular working hours;
(2) The employer shall give him, instead of the weekly rest hours in which he worked, the number and time of rest hours determined in the permit under which he was employed.
(b) If the employee's salary is on the basis of one month or a longer period, the employer will be entitled to give the employee, instead of the remuneration under paragraph (1) of subsection (a), rest of at least one and a half hours for each of the weekly rest hours in which he worked."
- Thus, an employee who worked during the weekly rest is entitled to one of two compensation (in addition to the rest hours determined in the permit under which he was employed[15]): first, a wage of 150% of the regular wage (as defined in section 18 of the Law) for each unit performed during the regular working hours (hereinafter – the payment alternative); The second, which is relevant to those who work for a salary, is a rest of at least an hour and a half for every hour of work during the weekly rest (hereinafter – the rest alternative).
- 1.IV. The Payment Alternative - From the General to the Individual
- There was no dispute that the teams did not pay their players, including Amos Vezovas, according to the payment alternative. One of their arguments is that in the circumstances of the case, the remuneration is included in their salary.
- The players, for their part, refer to the provision of section 5 of the Wage Protection Law, which states as follows:
"An employee to whom the Hours of Work and Rest Law, 5711-1951, applies and for whom a wage has been determined, including payment for overtime or weekly rest pay as stated in the Hours of Work and Rest Law, 5711-1951, or which includes vacation pay, in exchange for vacation or redemption of vacation as stated in the Annual Leave Law, 5711-1951 – the wage determined shall be considered as regular wages only, unless otherwise stipulated in a collective agreement regarding payment for overtime or work pay during the weekly rest and the agreement has been approved in this regard by a Minister The work."
- And in our view, the world of football has produced a variety of clichés to the world, some of which are true for the entire world and others that are unique to Israel. Among the clichés that are correct for the whole world is the cliché that "football is played for 90 minutes"[16] (before extra time came into the world). Among the clichés unique to Israel is the cliché that "soccer is played from Saturday to Saturday."[17] The Israeli cliché reflects the fact that basically soccer games are played on Shabbat or mainly on rest days.
- A review of the report of the inter-ministerial committee can identify a number of factors that led to the fact that the sport of soccer has always operated on the weekly rest, not only in Israel (Saturday) but also in Europe (Sunday). These include the popularity of the sport, the fact that the game is part of a broader sports and leisure culture, and the need to involve as large a crowd as possible in large stadiums, and more. It is not for nothing that there is an understandable division of international activity (continental, European – to which Israel (UEFA belongs) and global (FIFA)) on Tuesdays – Thursdays, and state activity on Fridays – Mondays, which are based mainly on the customary weekly rest days.
- 00The question before us is how to act in the case of players whose employment contract includes compensation for work on weekly rest but does not include separate compensation for work on the weekly rest? Should the provision of section 5 of the Wage Protection Law be applied in their case?
- In our opinion, due to the accumulation of the following circumstances, this question should be answered in the negative with respect to players such as Amos and Zubas.
- Unlike the common case in which the employee's salary is paid for his work during the week, when the question is what is the compensation to which the employee is entitled for his work during the weekly rest, the wages of Amos and Zubas and the like are actually paid for the work during the weekly rest. All attachment is not a pretense, but rather a weekly rest. The entire purpose of the agreement is the player's participation in the game held during the weekly rest. The training and other activities on the other days of the week (hereinafter – the additional activity) are intended to serve the game during the weekly rest. No team will engage with a player for the additional activity, unless the game is accompanied by the weekly rest. Therefore, from a material point of view, we are not dealing with an agreement in which there is a "total salary", but rather with an agreement whose main purpose is the salary paid for the weekly rest. In such unique circumstances, the split between the base salary and the remuneration for the weekly rest is considerably an artificial and meaningless split. After all, there is no acceptable base salary for the middle of the week, relative to which the rate of additional compensation for work during the weekly rest can be examined, for example – doctors, waiters, cleaning workers, security workers, etc. – whose wages for working on weekly rest can be compared to their wages for work on weekly rest. In fact, unlike the sports mentioned above, for a soccer player - certainly in the Premier League, working during the weekly rest is the main thing, while the additional activity that is carried out during the weekdays is the accompanying care.
It should be emphasized that the circumstances here are different from the circumstances discussed in the Kisselgoff case. In that case, the case of three workers, who were not defined as Jews for the purposes of the Hours of Work and Rest Law, was discussed. These workers were employed at a Shabbat observant hospital as a "non-Jew of Shabbat" (working only on Shabbat). These workers received unpaid wages for weekly rest work, even though the Sabbath – according to the factual determination – was included in their acceptable weekly rest. The National Court ruled that these workers are entitled to remuneration for work on weekly rest, when they have proven that their acceptable day of rest is Saturday. To complete the picture, it should be noted that the non-Jewish hospital employees who worked at the hospital on Shabbat received a 200% remuneration for their work, as opposed to the employees who were "non-Jews of Shabbat." In this regard, Justice Rabinovich held as follows: