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An employer who gave the employee illegible salary slips may be ordered to pay punitive damages

March 10, 2019
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An employee contended that his former employer furnished him with salary slips that did not accurately reflect the terms of his salary but were full of date that made them illegible.
The Labor Court ordered the employer to compensate by tens of thousands of shekels. Under law there is a duty to specify certain details in the salary slip in order to ensure that the employee has full information regarding the terms of the salary, in order to enable the employee to assert his rights. Thus, this is not a technical matter, but part of the obligation to act in good faith and in an acceptable manner, and it is not sufficient to provide a slip with data that only the employer's salary controller can understand. Where an employer knowingly furnishes a an employee with a salary slip that does not include the required details, the Labor Court may award punitive compensation for the benefit of the employee. In these special circumstances, under which pay slips were not clear, the employer was ordered to pay compensation of ILS 30,000 to prevent recurrence of behavior that exploits the distress of employees.