Using Sick Days to Care for a Sick Child in Israel: Your Complete Employee Rights Guide

The school calls at ten in the morning: your child has a fever and needs to be collected. For a working parent in Israel the questions come fast. Can I leave? Will I be paid? Does my employer get to say no?

The short version is that Israeli law treats a child's illness as a lawful reason to be absent from work and lets you charge the absence to your own sick-day balance. The details are less obvious, especially for foreign employees and new immigrants who are used to a different system. Whether you qualify can depend on what your spouse does for a living. The pay on the first day is zero. A child with cancer or a disability brings a much larger, separate entitlement that many parents never hear about.

1. Which Law Gives You the Right

The right to stay home with a sick child is in a short, stand-alone statute: the Sick Pay (Absence Due to Child's Illness) Law 5753-1993 (Chok Dmei Machala (Hey'adrut Bish'vil Machalat Yeled)). It is not a section of the main Sick Pay Law 5736-1976, although it relies on that law for two things: the sick-day balance you draw on, and the rate at which the days are paid.

Two companion laws follow the same model for other relatives:

• the Sick Pay (Absence Due to Spouse's Illness) Law 5758-1998, and
• the Sick Pay (Absence Due to Parent's Illness) Law 5753-1993.

All three set a statutory minimum. Section 3 of the Child's Illness Law says it does not reduce any better right you have under another law, a collective agreement, an extension order or your own contract. If your employer's policy gives more days or pays from the first day, that applies on top.

2. The 8-Day and 16-Day Entitlements

Section 1 of the Child's Illness Law covers ordinary illness: flu, a stomach bug, an ear infection, anything that keeps the child at home and needs a parent there. The rules are:

• Age: the child must be under 16.
• Cap: up to 8 days a year, taken from your accrued sick days.
• Single parents: up to 16 days a year if you are a single parent (horeh atzma'i, as defined in the Single Parent Families Law 5752-1992) or the child is in your sole custody.
• No waiting period: there is no minimum length of employment for the 8 or 16 days. You only need sick days in the bank.

The spouse condition

For a parent who is not single and does not have sole custody, the 8 days apply only if the other parent is either:

• an employee who is not taking absence under this law on those days, or
• self-employed and did not leave the business or stop working on those days.

The logic is that the law pays for care that no one else in the household is free to give. If your spouse does not work at all, the 8-day right does not apply, and you would need to use annual leave, unpaid leave or whatever your contract allows. Kol Zchut, Israel's main rights-information site, notes that a self-employed spouse's status is proven with documents such as National Insurance or VAT registration, and that this proof is renewed every six months.

The 8-day cap resets each year. Days you do not use for your child are not lost; they simply stay in your general sick-day balance for your own illness.

3. Serious Illness and Children With Disabilities

The 8-day rule is built for short illnesses. The same statute has two further provisions that give much more time, and both require at least one year of work with the same employer or at the same workplace.

Serious illness (Section 1A)

• The child must be under 18.
• "Serious illness" means a malignant disease, an illness requiring regular dialysis, or another illness the Minister adds by order.
• You can take up to 90 days a year to accompany and care for the child, or up to 110 days if your spouse is an employee who did not use the right, you are a single parent, or the child is in your sole custody.
• You choose whether each day comes out of your sick balance or your annual leave.
• Days you already used under the ordinary 8-day rule count toward the 90 or 110.

A child with a disability (Section 1B)

• This covers a person with a disability as defined in section 5 of the Equal Rights for Persons with Disabilities Law 5758-1998. There is no age limit, so it can apply to an adult son or daughter.
• You can take up to 18 days a year to give personal assistance (supervision, accompanying them to treatment, care), plus another 18 if your spouse is an employee who did not use them, your spouse is self-employed and kept working, you are a single parent, or you have sole custody.
• These days are paid from the first day, and part-days count, unlike ordinary sick days.
• Separately, the section allows up to 52 hours a year of absence without any deduction from wages (and another 52 on the same conditions as the extra days). These hours do not come out of your sick or leave balance.
• It does not apply to a temporary disability expected to pass within 60 days without recurring. Guardians and foster parents have parallel rights.

4. How the Days Are Paid

Ordinary child sick days are paid exactly like your own sick days under section 2 of the Sick Pay Law 5736-1976:

• Day 1: no pay.
• Days 2 and 3: 50% of your regular wage.
• Day 4 onward: 100%.

The balance itself builds up under section 4 of the Sick Pay Law at 1.5 days for each full month of work, which is 18 days a year, up to a maximum of 90 days. Child days are "on account of" that balance. A new employee three months into a job has at most 4.5 days to draw on, and someone who has used up their balance on their own illness has nothing left to use for a child.

Many collective agreements and company policies pay from the first day. Check your contract, the collective agreement or extension order that covers your sector, and your payslip (tlush maskoret), which should show your remaining sick-day balance.

5. A Sick Spouse or Parent

The companion laws work on the same basis, drawing on your sick balance at sick-pay rates, but the thresholds are higher. In both cases the relative must be fully dependent on others for daily activities, not just unwell.

Relative	Annual days	Main conditions
Child under 16, ordinary illness	8 (16 for a single parent or sole custody)	Other parent working and not absent the same day
Child under 18, serious illness	90 (110 in some cases)	One year of service; sick or annual leave days
Child with a disability, any age	18 (up to 36)	One year of service; paid from day 1
Spouse	6	Spouse fully dependent on others for daily activities
Spouse with a malignant disease	60	One year of service; sick or annual leave days
Your parent or your spouse's parent	6 in total	Parent fully dependent on others; no age test

The parent allowance is a single 6-day pool shared across your own parents and your spouse's parents, not 6 days per parent. For a spouse's parent, your spouse must be an employee who did not use the right. Both laws also give up to 7 days to care for a spouse or parent who donated an organ. There is no statutory right to sick days for a brother or sister.

6. The Paperwork: Declaration and Medical Certificate

The regulations under the Child's Illness Law ask for two documents:

1. A medical certificate (ishur rofe) confirming the child's illness. Every health fund (Clalit, Maccabi, Meuhedet, Leumit) issues these routinely.
2. A declaration on the form in the first schedule to the regulations, signed by both parents. A single parent or a parent with sole custody signs alone. The declaration covers the facts the right depends on, such as the other parent's work and the days each of you took.

For the serious-illness and disability provisions, expect to provide the medical documentation or disability determination that the right turns on. Ask HR in writing which form they use, and keep copies of everything you hand in. If your child has a long-term condition, it saves arguments to give HR the specialist's letter once, at the start, rather than fighting over each episode.

7. Foreign Employees, New Immigrants and a Spouse Abroad

The Sick Pay Law and its companion laws apply to employees working in Israel. They contain no citizenship or visa test, so a worker on a B/1 visa, a new immigrant (oleh) in their first job and an Israeli citizen are on the same footing. A few situations come up often in international families:

• New job after Aliyah. Your sick balance starts at zero with each new employer and grows by 1.5 days a month, so in the first months you may have very few days to draw on. The one-year service condition for serious illness and disability also restarts.
• Spouse working abroad or for a foreign company. The statute speaks of a spouse who is "an employee" or self-employed and does not say the work must be in Israel. Expect your employer to ask for proof, such as an employer letter, and for the declaration to reflect it. If your employer refuses on this ground, take advice before giving up the days.
• Spouse not working while the family settles in. This is common in the first year after a move. While one parent is not working, the other generally cannot use the 8 days. The serious-illness provision is different: the 90 days do not depend on the spouse working.
• A parent who lives abroad. The Parent's Illness Law turns on the parent being fully dependent on others for daily activities and does not mention where the parent lives. A foreign medical certificate will usually need to be translated before HR accepts it.

8. If Your Employer Refuses or Penalises You

You do not need your employer's permission to be absent under the Child's Illness Law. Kol Zchut puts it plainly: the right is not conditional on the employer's consent. Problems tend to show up in quieter ways, like the absence being recorded as unpaid, being taken out of your annual leave, or comments about your commitment. For the ordinary 8 or 16 days, the employer cannot charge the absence to your annual leave instead of your sick balance.

Steps that work:

1. Give notice in writing. A short email saying you are absent under the Sick Pay (Absence Due to Child's Illness) Law, with the medical certificate and signed declaration attached, creates a record.
2. Check the next payslip. Make sure the days appear as sick days at the right rate and your annual leave balance has not changed.
3. Complain to the Ministry of Labor. The Regulation and Enforcement Administration accepts complaints about breaches of labour laws, including anonymous ones, through the gov.il complaints service. This can lead to an administrative or criminal process against the employer, but it does not award you money.
4. Claim in the Regional Labour Court. To recover unpaid sick pay, you file in the Regional Labour Court. Under section 5 of the Prescription Law 5718-1958, monetary claims of this kind can generally be brought within seven years.

Dismissal

Section 4A of the Sick Pay Law bars dismissing an employee during an absence for their own illness while their sick balance lasts. Its wording covers the employee's own illness, not a child's. The stronger protection for parents comes from section 2 of the Employment (Equal Opportunities) Law 5748-1988, which prohibits discrimination in dismissal on grounds that include parenthood. In a 2021 case reported by Kol Zchut, the Jerusalem Regional Labour Court held that dismissing a worker because of absences to care for her children was unlawful parenthood discrimination and ordered her reinstated. If adverse treatment follows soon after you took days for a sick child, write down the dates and speak to an employment lawyer before you sign anything.