Eran Yaacobi, the owner and CEO of a security company, Hadar Security and Guarding 2002 Ltd. has been sentenced to three months prison by the Tel Aviv Regional Labor Court, after admitting, under a plea bargain, to failing to pay his employees the minimum wage. This is the first time that the courts have handed down a custodial sentence for this offense.
Yaacobi, who was also given a one year suspended sentence and fined NIS 50,000, is likely to be allowed do community service instead of serving his sentence in prison, assuming that the Probation Service does not advise otherwise. Yaacobi's company, Hadar Security, was fined NIS 100,000.
The charge was brought by the Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Labor, after the company's employees filed a complaint, stating they had not been paid the minimum wage. Some workers even claimed they had not been paid their wages at all for several months.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on January 28, 2008
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