Workers' Rights Clinic

The Workers’ Rights Clinic (est. 2000) The Clinic aims to improve the legal status and working conditions of vulnerable employees, eradicate worker exploitation and discrimination, and promote organized labor by raising awareness of the benefits of collective action. The Clinic employs a diverse legal toolkit that includes support for employees pursuing collective action, proposing statutory amendments, and drafting legislation on issues related to workers’ rights.

The Clinic’s students gain practical experience in labor and employment law by preparing statements of claim; accompanying lawyers at court; guiding and advising employee groups; conducting research; drafting proposals for litigation and policy amendments; collaborating with various NGOs; and, providing legal services at the community level. During their time with the Clinic, students discover the unique challenges and numerous barriers faced by vulnerable workers - from job search to termination - in Israel’s labor market.

Since September 2024, the Workers' Rights Clinic has acted as a 'laboratory' for ChainGE Lab, an interdisciplinary academic study dedicated to studying new labour law and institutions for supply chain capitalism, led by the Clinic's academic advisor, Prof. Hila Shamir. The clinic develops litigation and organizing strategies to support workers' rights in subcontracted and multi-tiered employment arrangements. Its legal activities provide experiential and empirical data to inform and address the project's research questions. From 2018-2023, the Workers’ Rights Clinic served as a ‘laboratory’ for Trafflab, an interdisciplinary academic study on human trafficking, also led by Prof. Hila Shamir.

Clinical Staff

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Prof. Hila Shamir – Academic Instructor	Miri Gross – Clinical Instructor

Additional Reading

Download a full text of Itai Svirski's article: "Moving to Bottom-Up Representation: A Comment on Gomez and Prado, “Flawed Freedom of Association in Brazil,” from the Perspective of the Developing New Unionism in Israel".