The Jerusalem Regional Labor Court has issued a significant ruling concerning two former cashiers at the 'Rami Levy Shivuk Hashikma' chain, Meir Adri and Baruch Shaltiel, certifying their claim as a class action. At the heart of the dispute is a long-standing practice where cashiers were required to cover out-of-pocket or have deducted from their salaries amounts representing cash shortages discovered at the end of their shifts. As reported by ynet, the plaintiffs alleged that the retail chain deducted these amounts automatically, presenting them as debt owed by the employee under the law. Conversely, the chain argued that the deductions were made lawfully in accordance with agreements signed by the employees.
The panel of judges, led by Judge Rachel Barag-Hirshberg, rejected the chain's position entirely. The verdict stated that Section 25 of the Wage Protection Law was not intended to allow an employer to turn employees' wages into a safety net for business losses. The court heavily criticized the organizational culture described by the plaintiffs, in which exhausted employees at the end of their shifts were required to sign deduction authorizations under implicit or explicit threats of disciplinary hearings and dismissal. The court concluded that this is a system of absolute liability that places the cost of technical errors on the employees' shoulders without any substantive inquiry.
As an immediate measure, the court ordered the chain to pay attorney fees and legal expenses to the plaintiffs. The case, first exposed in a ynet investigation, has brought the conduct of retail chains in this area to the public agenda. Following the investigation, proceedings were opened against other chains, and the Ministry of Labor has imposed fines on others for similar labor law violations. Regarding legislation, it was noted that the 'Cashier Bill,' designed to protect employee wages from such deductions, was approved in a first reading in the Knesset but has remained stalled in legislative processes since February 2025. Attorney Zvi Mendelson, representing the plaintiffs, clarified that this is a significant decision emphasizing that an employee's salary is not an insurance fund for the employer. The class action is expected to proceed with the goal of recovering funds illegally collected from group members.