Hundreds of employees at Israel's Population and Immigration Authority’s Foreign Workers Administration went on strike on Sunday, with more workers expected to join on Monday. The strike comes in response to a sharp increase in the quotas for foreign workers, which has resulted in a significant increase in workload for the administration’s staff. According to the Histadrut labor federation, repeated attempts to engage in dialogue and find solutions have been ignored.
Before the war, there were about 160,000 foreign workers in Israel, alongside approximately 100,000 Palestinian workers from the West Bank and Gaza who entered the country daily. With Palestinian labor halted, the government shifted its foreign worker policy, setting a target to increase their number significantly—up to 3.3% of the national population, or around 330,000 people.
Since then, tens of thousands of foreign workers have been approved to enter Israel. In the agriculture industry alone, the quota for foreign workers rose from 30,000 to 70,000. The number of licensed foreign labor recruitment agencies in construction jumped from 94 to 280.
Work permits were also approved in sectors that previously had no foreign labor, such as restaurants, cleaning, and renovations. In addition, private recruitment channels were allowed, replacing the former government-to-government mechanisms that were designed to protect workers' rights.
Although the government promised to expand the Foreign Workers Administration by around 480 positions, it has struggled to hire due to low wages, increasing the burden on existing employees.
“The employer and the Finance Ministry are avoiding negotiations. Nothing will help—until they sit with us for talks, the workers will not return,” Danny Bonfil, chair of the Jerusalem branch of the Histadrut, said.
Mazel Golan, newly appointed head of the Histadrut’s construction union, described the administration workers’ wages as “disgracefully low, sometimes even lower than the foreign workers themselves.”
“This reality makes it impossible to recruit quality staff, worsens the overload in the system, and harms the economy and the interests of all Israeli citizens,” Golan said. “Action must be taken quickly to improve conditions.”
The Population and Immigration Authority said that the issue of Foreign Workers Administration employees’ wages and conditions was discussed at a meeting with the Civil Service Commission and the Wage and Labor Agreements Department in February 2025.
“It was agreed that the issue would continue to be addressed in discussions between management, the Histadrut, and the Finance Ministry. Given the Authority’s ongoing challenges, we urge the Histadrut to end the strike and allow further dialogue,” the authority said.
MK Eti Atiya of the Likud party, who chairs the Knesset Foreign Workers Committee, noted that the strike was “disrupting vital services and harming citizens, employers, and legal foreign residents.”
“I’m hearing from many children of elderly parents in need of urgent care. While expanding staff is a good step, low wages must be addressed to recruit and retain professionals. I call on Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to immediately introduce a long-term solution,” she said.
