Haaretz has pledged not to publish any more 'help wanted' ads that discriminate against Shabbat-observant candidates, as opposed to several previous advertisements that require candidates to work on weekends.
The commitment comes after a publication of the matter in Israel National News and after MK Avraham Betzalel (Shas) and the Bezalmo organization reported the policy to the Employment Equal Opportunities Commission.
It should be noted that in the past, Haaretz newspaper has been warned by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to stop publishing these ads, and the newspaper did undertake to stop, but despite this, discriminatory ads were published.
[קישורים:4:Haaretz]
Following this, attorney Sivan Azoulai, an appointee of the Central Commission, wrote to Haaretz: "In the past, you pledged to us to stop publishing these discriminatory ads, despite this, complaint letters and inspections carried out by us show that this continues."
As a result, the CEO of Haaretz, Rami Gaz, promised that this was a mistake. In his letter to the Commission, he stated, "Without admitting to the claims in your letter, I would like to announce that I have already instructed in the past to remove this condition from the necessary notices. These ads were published by mistake and will be removed immediately." Indeed, as stated, these ads have been removed.
Shai Glick, CEO of the Betzalmo organization, said: "All is well at the end of the day. I thank the Equal Opportunities Commission for not hesitating to act against anyone who tries to discriminate against Shabbat observant candidates, as well as to my friend MK Betzalel, the chairman of the lobby for the Shabbat. It is not feasible that in the State of Israel in the year 2023 people will have difficulty finding a job just because they want to keep Shabbat and rest with their family. We will continue to stand for the right of every person who was discriminated against in the hiring process on the basis of observing Shabbat or his religious origin."