Job quality in segmented labour markets : the Israeli case: country case study on labour market segmentation

Till the early-1990s the collectively-bargained labour contract (between the trade-union that presented the employees, and the employer or the employers'- association) was the norm in Israel, granting salaried workers a stable and protected labour contract. Thereafter, and more significantly after 1995, the share of unionized workers dropped constantly, to almost half of its peak level of more than 80 per cent. In parallel, two other types of contracts became more common: personal temporary contracts (between an individual worker and his employer), and contracts between a labour-contractor and employees who are employed in a triangular mode of employment (employee-contractor-client). The latter involves precarious employment and is more common among the more vulnerable sub-populations of new-immigrants, disabled individuals, Israeli- Arabs, foreign-workers and women.