The government must allow the 49 corporations authorized to employ foreign workers to go to European countries to recruit construction workers to help lower apartment prices, said Eldad Nitzan, chairman of the Foreign Workers’ Manpower Corporations in the Construction Industry at the Chamber of Commerce.
"Although there is a government decision to increase the quota of foreign workers in the construction industry by 13,500 new workers, there are objective problems with the recruitment and approval of foreign workers within the framework of the bilateral agreements due to delays on the part of the Chinese government and the Russia-Ukraine war, and thus the government's decision is not being implemented," Nitzan told Justice Minister Gideon Sa'ar.
According to the data published since the signing of the bilateral agreements with China and Eastern Europe countries, the state managed to recruit only a relatively small number of foreign workers, about 4,000, but in practice this did not help the construction industry much because at the same time about 2,500 foreign workers were forced to go back home due to their visas expiring.
The Population Authority makes every effort to bring foreign workers to Israel, but the objective conditions do not make it possible to bring workers within the quota approved by the government, said Nitzan. Until obtaining permits to import foreign workers from Turkey and India, the authorized corporations must be allowed to bring in additional foreign workers he said.
Nitzan said that the delay in meeting the goal of the aforementioned government's decision is preventing a decrease in housing prices and the building of about 70,000 new housing units in 2023.
The lack of foreign workers in the construction industry has led to a situation in Israel where in the first half of 2022 housing prices in Tel Aviv will reach approximately NIS 100,000 per square meter.
In addition, a professional opinion by Ernst Young was submitted that supports this position to adopt the outline so that the authorized corporations could rapidly recruit foreign workers from abroad other than through the bilateral agreements.
This article was written in cooperation with the Israeli Chamber of Commerce.