Foreign Construction Companies to Enter in Addition to Existing Ones

The current proposal raises the quota of foreign workers in the industry to 60,000, and aims to allow foreign construction companies to enter in addition to the existing ones. Contractors welcome the increase in the quota, but say it should reach 100,000 foreign workers.

The proposal raises the quota of foreign workers to 60 thousand foreign workers, after a decision was already made on November 12 that raised the quota from 30 thousand to 50 thousand. Today, this quota, made up of workers who arrived under bilateral agreements and outside them, stands at only 20,000 foreign workers (not including the foreign companies that implement them). The proposal also shows that the State fully understands the complexity of absorbing such a large number of workers and acclimatizing them in the country, and in light of this it was decided that when the number of workers reaches 40 thousand, it will examine the effects of their presence from the economic and social perspective.

Increasing the number of workers through a decision on a larger number of foreign workers is fundamental for this government. For a long time, Israel has had difficulty bringing in foreign workers under agreements with other countries, and all the more so now, to a country at war. As an example, one of the main countries from which Israel tried to import a large number of workers is China, which is now turning its back on Israel.
At the same time, among the contractors there is at least optimism regarding the number of workers who will arrive outside the bilateral agreements. These days, screenings are being carried out abroad, in two districts of India and in Sri Lanka, and it is estimated that within about a month at most, some 8,000 workers from India, 2,000 from Sri Lanka and about 6,000 from Uzbekistan will enter Israel.

Another channel through which the State seeks to increase the number of employees in the industry is foreign construction companies. In 2016, a decision was made to allow foreign construction companies to operate in Israel, and they were allocated a quota of 12,000 workers, of which the companies currently employ only about 7,600 workers. The proposal is to create an additional group of foreign contracting companies that can each employ up to 1,600 workers, up to a quota of 15,000 workers, in addition to the existing quota of 12,000 workers. The companies that arrive will be able to act both as executing contractors and as developers alongside a local partner. This is a decision that contractors oppose because, according to them, it could harm construction companies in Israel, whose situation is already poor at the moment.
The government also intends to continue its attempts to bring Israeli workers into the construction industry through various incentives.