This article is general information, not legal advice. Every case is examined on its own facts, and every cause of action has its own limitation period.

The case

Let us say that Roni has worked for about four years as a storekeeper at a distribution company in Jerusalem. During a military operation, he served 25 days of reserve duty. In the middle of his service he was sent home for four days, and then he was called back to his unit. When he returned to work, he saw on his payslip that his annual leave balance had dropped by ten days, including the four days he spent at home. Now, two years later, Roni wants to know whether his employer was allowed to do this, and whether he can still claim the days back.

What the law and the case law say

The Annual Leave Law says that days on which an employee served in the reserves under the Reserve Service Law, 5768-2008, do not count as annual leave days (Annual Leave Law, 5711-1951, section 5). Put simply, absence due to reserve duty is not supposed to come out of the leave the employee has built up.

The first condition is that the deducted days were days on which the employee actually did reserve service under the Reserve Service Law. The provision covers only the days of service themselves.

The second condition is that the employer recorded those days as annual leave and deducted them from the employee's leave balance.

When both conditions are met, the next question is what kind of debt this is. The law says that holiday pay, payment for unused leave when employment ends, and payment in lieu of leave are treated as wages for every purpose (Annual Leave Law). In other words, a debt for leave days that were wrongly deducted is an ordinary wage debt.

The third condition is about time. The limitation period is the length of time after which a claim can no longer be brought. The Annual Leave Law sets its own special limitation period for claims under it: any claim under that law, including a claim for wrongly deducted leave days or for holiday pay, becomes time-barred after three years (Annual Leave Law, 5711-1951, section 31). This is shorter than the general rule of seven years set out in the Limitation Law for claims that do not relate to land, because when a particular law sets its own special period, that period is the one that applies.

Compensation for late payment of wages, which is extra compensation on top of wages that were paid late, follows a different and shorter rule. The law says that the right to this compensation becomes time-barred if a claim is not filed within one year of the day on which the wages are treated as late, or within 60 days of the day on which the employee received the wages, whichever comes first. The Regional Labour Court may extend the 60 days to up to 90 days. And if the employer paid wages late three times within 12 consecutive months, the limitation period for the three years following the payment date is three years (Wage Protection Law, 5718-1958, section 17A).

Where Roni's case stands

The first condition is met for the six days that were deducted while Roni was with his unit. For the four days on which he was sent home, the facts do not settle the matter. The question is whether those days counted as days of reserve service or as a break between two periods of service. The employer has a legitimate position here: if the employee was at home and not on service, the employer may see this as an ordinary absence.

The second condition is met. The payslip shows that the days were deducted from his leave balance.

The third condition is met. Two years have passed, which is less than the three years that section 31 of the Annual Leave Law allows for any claim under that law. So Roni's claim is not yet time-barred, but he has only about one year left to file it. Compensation for late payment of wages is a separate question, and our firm examines it against its own shorter deadlines.

It seems that in such a case the courts would hold that the employer must give Roni back the leave days deducted for the days of service themselves. The answer for the four additional days would be different if it turned out that they did not count as days of reserve service. Employees who find a deduction like this on their payslip, and employers who are unsure how to record reserve duty days, are welcome to contact our firm.