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Petition to the High Court: The employment service must make all its services accessible in Arabic
Residents of East Jerusalem who lost their jobs in Corona were required to fill out forms in Hebrew in order to receive unemployment benefits even though they do not speak the language, and found it difficult to get an answer in Arabic: "Basic service blocked due to language barrier."
Employment Service: We will increase the focus on Arabic speakers, registration in Hebrew - to enable fast treatment "
Tags
Employment Services
East Jerusalem
unemployment
Maya Horodnichano
Thursday, 04 March 2021, 20:01 Updated: 20:02
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"Accessibility of the service is immediately necessary."
The Jerusalem Employment Bureau (Photo: Official Website, Yossi Zamir, Flash 90)
Residents of East Jerusalem who recently lost their jobs petitioned the High Court to order the Employment Service to make all its services accessible in Arabic as well. Petitioners request a telephone answer in Arabic with the same availability and quality of service in Hebrew, translation of all information on the site and online forms into Arabic, assistance in filling out forms and Arabic.
During the corona most of the employment service activity was done online. A petition filed with the Ma'an workers' organization and the Civil Rights Association last week stated that the corona crisis "only emphasized the immediate need to make the service, information, call center, forms, procedures and website of the Arab service available to Arab applicants. "We have to deal not only with layoffs and lack of social security, but also with the language barrier and access to basic and vital service."
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In order to receive unemployment benefits, the employee who was fired or expelled to the IDF must register on the employment service website, since at the time of the corona the offices were closed. The three petitioners, who do not speak Hebrew, lost their jobs this year and tried to register to receive unemployment benefits. There were in Hebrew and messages they received about the actions they had to perform were also in the Hebrew language.When trying to contact the national call center for assistance they also encountered difficulty - since even then they were answered in Hebrew and told to return to an Arabic-speaking representative. Long after the application - after the forms were supposed to be submitted, the
Address and the Ataa Center, which assists residents in East Jerusalem, received hundreds of similar applications for assistance this year due to language difficulties from dismissed workers who were expelled following the corona.
This, for fear of not receiving the unemployment benefits to which they are entitled.
Ma'an and the Association for Civil Rights contacted the employment service on the subject, and after applying, an online form for initial registration was translated into Arabic - but it can only be filled out in Hebrew.
Regarding the text messages in Hebrew, they were told that it is possible to get help from another person who will translate into Arabic or call the call center - where, as stated, there is not always an Arabic-speaking representative.
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"The current situation whereby an Arab resident who does not master the Hebrew language, his access to the respondent's basic services is blocked due to the language barrier or he is forced to depend on organizations or relatives for access to these services, seriously violates constitutional rights to dignity, privacy and dignity," the petition said.
"The respondent's failure to make his services accessible to the Arabic language and the harassment he causes to a citizen or resident when he is in a difficult period due to the loss of his livelihood, constitutes a violation of his dignity.
Employment service: Accessibility is considered a top value
The Employment Service stated in response to the petition that "beyond the legal obligation, the Employment Service considers accessibility a supreme value and this is expressed in all its actions, including language accessibility. The purpose of the service is to bridge the gap between job seekers and the labor market, routine and crisis." In Arabic, every citizen who speaks one of them has access to all the contents of the site. In addition, the service does everything possible to enrich linguistic accessibility by diversifying its staff. For example, during the Corona crisis, the number of Arabic-speaking callers increased 6.5 times. "In addition, he can also receive telephone service in his mother tongue. In addition, his activity on social networks is in both languages, and he has also set up a dedicated Facebook page for Arabic speakers that includes about 100,000 Arabic speakers, who enjoy accessible information, including information videos invested in Arabic."
"Violation of the right to equality."
East Jerusalem (Photo: ShutterStock)
Needless to say, all means of transmitting information, including text messages, voicemail, etc. are equally accessible in Arabic as in Hebrew, "the employment service added.
If that is not enough, accessibility is reflected not only in the transfer of information but also in the service's efforts to remove language barriers that make employment more difficult, through a long series of courses to provide 'occupational Hebrew' with a budget investment of millions of shekels per year. Ease of work, most of whom speak Hebrew. "
It is also stated that "one exception is in the online registration process for the employment bureaus where all the fields are translated into Arabic, so that an Arabic speaker can easily understand what he is expected to fill in. However, the registration fields must be filled in with Hebrew typing. This is because those who register online are coordinators. "The placement, which is not all Arabic-speaking. In order to allow quick processing of the registration applications of all job seekers, everyone is required to fill in their details in Hebrew letters and so placement coordinators who do not speak Arabic can help."
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