Extra Work, Same Salary: What Are Your Rights When Colleagues Leave?
When employees absorb the workload of departing colleagues without extra pay, understanding legal rights regarding overtime, managerial duties, and contract changes is crucial.
When an employee leaves a team and management announces that no replacement will be hired for the time being, the remaining staff absorbs the workload. Meetings increase, responsibility grows, and working days often stretch. After two months, what was supposed to be a temporary situation becomes permanent. The company saves on a salary, but the employees handling the extra work continue to receive the exact same pay. Are they entitled to a raise?
The answer depends entirely on what actually changed. In Israel, there is no general legal provision requiring an employer to raise wages every time they assign additional tasks or responsibilities. However, when the change involves overtime, a breach of the employment contract, or a substantial alteration of employment terms, employee rights may arise that can be enforced legally.
When the Workday Lengthens: Calculating Overtime
The clearest right to additional pay arises when the new workload causes an employee to stay past standard hours, subject to the Hours of Work and Rest Law. In the private sector, the standard workweek is 42 hours, while in most public sector bodies it stands at 40 hours. Eligibility for overtime is assessed daily depending on the work format. The first two overtime hours on a regular workday must be paid at 125% of the hourly wage, and from the third hour onward at 150%.
Take, for example, an employee earning ₪60 per hour. Following a colleague's departure, they are required to work two extra hours every day, five days a week. Assuming these hours qualify as overtime under the law, they are entitled to an additional ₪150 per day. In a month with 22 such working days, this amounts to ₪3,300. If the situation continues for half a year, the sum reaches ₪19,800.
It is also important to distinguish between pay for extra work and an addition to the base salary. Overtime pay does not automatically become part of the base salary for pension contributions and severance pay calculations.
Managerial Responsibility Without Promotion or Extra Pay
There is a distinct difference between an employee who takes on more tasks and one who effectively becomes a team manager. Suppose an employee was responsible for a specific professional field, and following the departure of their manager, they were tasked with distributing assignments to other employees, approving vacations, setting priorities, and reporting department performance to management, all while their salary and title remained unchanged.
Even in such cases, no general law forces the employer to add a specific amount to the salary simply because the employee performs managerial duties. However, the change can be contractually significant, especially if the original job description was narrower.
If the employment contract, a collective agreement, or a binding workplace custom mandates compensation for replacement duties or a managerial role, the employee may be entitled to extra pay. A case illustrating this principle was discussed in the Beersheba Regional Labor Court in a claim filed by David Ben Moha against the Eilat Port. The employee, whose permanent position was assistant helmsman, performed 81 shifts as a replacement docking coordinator and demanded wage differentials totaling ₪25,272.
The court ruled that the employee was entitled to compensation for fulfilling the role in accordance with the port's regulations. The employer argued that the placement was made due to a labor shortage and against procedures, but these claims did not negate his fundamental right to compensation.
When Can Increased Workload Be Considered Constructive Dismissal?
In certain cases, a unilateral and significant change in working conditions can be considered a material breach of contract, often termed constructive dismissal. Section 11 of the Severance Pay Law allows an employee who resigns due to a material worsening of employment conditions to receive severance pay as if they were dismissed.
However, an increased workload does not automatically lead to this outcome. There is a distinction between a busy period, a redistribution of tasks, and a permanent change requiring an employee to perform a vastly expanded role under substantially different conditions. To claim severance pay through this route, an employee generally needs at least one year of seniority with the employer and must demonstrate that a material breach occurred, providing the employer with a reasonable opportunity to rectify the situation.
How to Request a Pay Raise Based on Data
A request for a salary increase is much stronger when built on data rather than general complaints. Instead of simply stating that the workload has grown, employees should present the added responsibilities, the scope of work, and the value they deliver to the organization. When the company saves an entire position and passes the work on to remaining employees, the staff holds a significant economic argument in negotiations. If the employer refuses to raise wages, employees can request to narrow the scope of tasks, redefine priorities, set a deadline for temporary replacement duties, or secure a commitment to review the role and salary at a later date.
