Workers are demanded to work in times of heightened security risk – a couple of weeks ago during another heated violent episode between Israel and Gaza, Israeli civilians in the south along with residents from the center of Israel were called not to attend places of work and schools due to the shelling of rockets. However, these instructions seemed not to apply to everyone. KLO employees and concerned civilians documented workers in the construction and agriculture sectors working, regardless of the risks. We revealed that safety instructions were not published in all languages. An affidavit from a Thai worker in agriculture sheds light on the phenomena in which workers are demanded to work although they are at risk from rocket fire, and their employers disregard their lives: “nobody explains the security situation to us in real-time, and we only understand from the sirens. That is all. The employer sends us to work – regardless of whether or not there are sirens. There is nothing we can do, the employer says we need to work so we work. There are no shelters in the field or in the orchards. There is a storage unit where the pesticides are kept. When we are at work- we just have to lay on the ground. Miriam Anati our agriculture coordinator was interviewed on this matter, after which PIBA published instructions to employers on the regulations relating to worker safety during escalation of the conflict.
