Class Action Suit Against Chinuch Atzmai For ‘Voluntary’ 2% Deductions From Teachers Salaries

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — A request for a 28 million NIS class action suit against the Chinuch Atzmai organization was submitted to the Tel Aviv Labor Court a year ago.

The petition to authorize the class action suit was submitted by two teachers in the Chinuch Atzmai who claimed that the organization systematically deducts 2% from the monthly salaries of teachers as a “contribution” to the “Foundation For Torah Education”, an association controlled by the Chinuch Atzmai itself. The teachers claimed that these contributions were illegal and had been deducted unilaterally without the agreement of the teachers for a period of more than five years since the beginning of their employment.

The Chinuch Atzmai claimed in response that the contributions were “permitted, authentic and voluntary.”

In a hearing which took place before judge Dori Spivak of the Tel Aviv Labor Court, the two plaintiffs and Eizik Goldstein, representing the Chinuch Atzmai’s Torah Foundation, were questioned about the matter. During the hearing it was revealed that the Registrar of Associations had addressed the Chinuch Atzmai in 2018 and warned it about the illegal contributions. The Chinuch Atzmai responded to the request and claimed that everything was legal. Later the Chinuch Atzmai submitted a report to the registrar claiming that from 2017 the “contributions” had stopped, but the pay slips of the teachers prove otherwise.

In the annual report submitted by the Foundation For Torah Education, the 2017 “Israel contributions” numbered 3 million NIS which Goldstein admitted stemmed mainly from teachers salaries. He also admitted that he himself does not contribute to the foundation and only teachers contributed, claiming that the government’s regulations prevent administration workers from contributing to a fund they are involved in administrating.

Goldstein attempted to explain that the general public and administrators can contribute to the Keren Hasaot, the fund for transporting children to their schools, but failed to explain why this was permitted and the Foundation for Torah Education was not permitted to them.

The judge also queried how Goldstein could claim that the 2% was a “contribution” if everyone gives exactly the same amount. He said that the fact that it was a fixed amount “gives the impression that this is not a matter of each person choosing for himself, as then the contributions would be different in every case.”

Goldstein’s answer to this query was unclear.