Moshe Gafni
Moshe GafniKobi Richter/ TPS

In a preliminary reading, the Knesset approved bill to allow the wives of married yeshiva students to receive sick days for children.

The bill, put forward by Finance Committee Chairman MK Moshe Gafni (UTJ), would recognize yeshiva and university students as working spouses for the purposes of calculating child sick days.

In the previous Knesset, a similar bill was pushed by MK Uri Maklev (UTJ), but the process of passing it was cut short when the Knesset disbanded.

The new bill passed its preliminary reading 61-14, and will now be passed to the Knesset's Labor, Welfare, and Health Committee to be prepared for its first full Knesset reading.

"This will right an historic wrong!" Gafni said.

Currently, each employee is entitled to eight children's sick days per year, on condition that his spouse is working that day and that he signed a special document.

Yeshiva students and college students do not work, and therefore their spouses did not receive sick days for the children.