Health and Safety in Israel: 12 Things a Tel Aviv Office Needs
Tel Aviv is one of the densest concentrations of technology headcount anywhere, and a great deal of it belongs to entities owned from London, New York or Silicon Valley.
Those entities encounter a framework built for a different economy. Israel's principal safety instrument is an Ordinance from 1970, supplemented by a long series of regulations addressing particular hazards, industries and activities. Nothing in that structure was designed with a software company in mind, which produces a specific problem: working out which parts of it reach you is itself the first task.
Twelve things.
1. The framework is an Ordinance plus a stack of regulations
The Work Safety Ordinance [New Version], 5730-1970 sets the general duties of employers and employees. It is supplemented by numerous regulations and rules addressing specific hazards, industries and safety aspects.
Enforcement sits with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration within the labour ministry, operating under both the Ordinance and the Labour Inspection (Organization) Law, 5714-1954. Inspectors may enter workplaces at any reasonable time, examine premises, equipment and documents, and interview employees and management.
2. Working out which regulations reach you is the first task
The practical consequence of that structure, and it is not a formality.
The regulations are hazard and activity specific: personal protective equipment, first aid in the workplace, work with hazardous materials in laboratories, and many others. A published list gives a sense of the range, and Tel Aviv University maintains an accessible English index of the general safety regulations.
For an office-based technology business, most of the industrial content will not apply and several general instruments will. Establishing which is a question for local advice at the outset rather than an assumption to carry.
3. The safety officer question, and why you must confirm it
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The appointment obligation, and the detail here needs care.
Israel operates a safety officer regime under dedicated regulations, with the appointment turning on the classification of the workplace and the number of employees. Commentary indicates a threshold in the region of fifty workers for certain categories, and that the labour inspectorate may determine a different minimum number of hours by evaluating the risk analysis.
Confirm the position for your specific activity classification and headcount through Israeli advice rather than relying on any summary. Reporting of the thresholds in secondary sources is inconsistent, and whether a technology office falls inside the relevant category is precisely the question a foreign parent cannot answer from a distance.
4. A risk survey is expected
Employers are required to identify potential hazards and take appropriate measures, which in practice means a documented survey of the workplace and its risks, updated as conditions change.
The concept will be familiar to anyone who has read the rest of this series. What differs is that the surrounding regulations are hazard-specific rather than framed around a single general assessment duty, so the survey needs to establish which specific regimes engage.
5. First aid has its own regulations
Safety in the Workplace Regulations on first aid in the workplace set requirements separately from the general duty.
For an office this is one of the instruments most likely to apply directly, and it is worth establishing what it requires in terms of provision and trained personnel rather than importing a group standard.
6. Protective equipment, even in an office
Separate regulations govern personal protective equipment.
Most technology offices will conclude these have limited application, and that conclusion should be recorded rather than assumed. Where the entity has a hardware laboratory, a workshop or any testing environment, the position changes materially and the laboratory-specific regulations may also engage.
7. A harassment policy is required at twenty-five employees
The obligation most likely to apply to a Tel Aviv office right now, and it is precise.
Organisations with twenty-five or more employees must publish a formal internal policy on the prevention of sexual harassment, display it clearly, and ensure employees know how to report incidents.
Twenty-five is a low threshold, and a growing technology entity crosses it early. A group policy in English sitting on an intranet does not satisfy a requirement expressed in terms of publishing and displaying.
8. The investigation duty applies at any size
Distinct from the policy obligation, and it has no threshold.
All employers, regardless of size, must investigate complaints promptly and confidentially, document their findings, and take effective action. Failure to act appropriately can result in employer liability, and the labour courts are empowered to award compensation without proof of financial loss.
That last point is worth putting in front of a general counsel. The absence of quantifiable loss is not a defence, which changes the risk profile substantially compared with jurisdictions where damages track demonstrable harm.
9. Remote work sits in a gap, and the gap does not protect you
The item most relevant to how Israeli technology companies actually operate.
The Ordinance and its regulations traditionally apply to physical workplaces, and have not been explicitly extended to remote work. Practitioner commentary is nonetheless clear that employers are advised to conduct risk assessments and ensure ergonomic and safe working conditions for employees working from home, covering workstation setup, working hour limits and rest breaks, and that accidents occurring while working from home will likely be recognised as work accidents. Chambers publishes an overview of Israeli employment trends.
Read those two facts together. The regulations may not prescribe what you must do, and the consequences of an incident attach anyway. That is the least comfortable combination available, and it argues for treating homeworking as assessable rather than waiting for an instrument that says so.
10. Commuting accidents count
A feature that surprises employers from common law jurisdictions.
Under the notification regime, an incident occurring while travelling to and from the workplace is treated as an occupational accident requiring reporting.
For an organisation whose incident process is built around events on premises, that is a category it is probably not capturing at all, and the reporting obligation attaches regardless.
11. Reporting, and annual returns
Two obligations that operate on different rhythms.
Notification of injuries and dangerous occurrences follows the applicable ordinance and regulations, with defined categories and forms. Separately, employers are required to submit annual reports to the labour ministry providing information on workplace accidents, injuries and occupational diseases.
Establish both routes before you need them: who notifies an individual event, and who compiles the annual return.
12. Safety documents are kept for years
The retention point, and it is longer than most corporate schedules contemplate.
Safety documentation is expected to be retained for a substantial period, reported as at least seven years, with health and occupational illness records held longer.
Confirm the current periods locally. The practical implication is the one that recurs throughout this series: a document system that migrates every few years is not a retention strategy.
What a Tel Aviv entity needs
| Item | Position | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Framework | Ordinance plus regulations | Identify which reach your activity |
| Safety officer | Category and headcount dependent | Confirm locally, do not assume |
| Risk survey | Expected and documented | Establish which specific regimes engage |
| First aid | Own regulations | Apply the Israeli requirement, not a group standard |
| PPE and laboratories | Limited for offices, material with a lab | Record the conclusion either way |
| Harassment policy | 25 employees | Published and displayed, not filed |
| Investigation | Any size | Prompt, confidential, documented |
| Remote work | Not expressly covered, consequences attach | Assess anyway |
| Commuting | Reportable | Capture the category |
| Reporting | Event notification plus annual return | Two named owners |
| Retention | Several years, longer for health | Design the system for it |
| Enforcement | Inspectors may enter and examine | Documents retrievable locally |
Rows six and seven are the two to act on this week, because the threshold is low, the duty is precise, and the exposure does not require anyone to prove loss.
Israel alongside the wider picture
Israel illustrates something this series has found repeatedly in different forms: the age and shape of a country's principal instrument determines how much work a foreign parent has to do.
Where a framework is modern and general, as in Great Britain or New Zealand, the duty is broad and the employer exercises judgement. Where it is older and hazard-specific, as here, the employer has to establish which of many instruments apply before it can do anything else. Neither is easier; they fail differently. The ILO publishes the international standards many national frameworks measure themselves against, and Israel's own institute for occupational safety and hygiene publishes material in English.
Holding one group view while each entity meets its own national test is where health and safety consultants and software are worth more together than either alone, and periodic health and safety audits establish which instruments actually reach each entity.
Where Arinite fits
Arinite works with locally qualified practitioners in Israel, so the question of which regulations apply is answered by somebody who works with them, while your group keeps one point of contact across every country. We support 1,500+ businesses across 50+ countries and protect 100,000+ employees, with 95%+ client retention over 15+ years. Our health and safety consultants work extensively with IT and software and finance and banking organisations, which describe most foreign-owned headcount in Tel Aviv.
Our global health and safety consultants handle the jurisdictions that accompany an Israeli entity, and our international health and safety consultants can establish what is outstanding locally.
If your Tel Aviv entity has more than twenty-five people and no published harassment policy, a free gap analysis is the right place to start.
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Written by
Arinite Health & Safety Consultants
Health & Safety Expert at Arinite
