Can an employee in Israel demand to see their personnel file and the personal data their employer holds?

The access right sits alongside a correction right in Section 14: an employee who finds inaccurate or incomplete data may demand that it be corrected or deleted, and a refusal has to be given in writing with reasons, which opens the door to a court application. Enforcement runs on two tracks. The Privacy Protection Authority supervises database owners and, since Amendment 13, can impose substantial administrative fines. Separately, the Labor Court has developed its own workplace privacy doctrine built on good faith and proportionality, best known from the National Labor Court’s Isakov ruling on employer monitoring of employee email, which restricts what an employer may collect in the first place.

For a foreign employee heading into a dispute, an access request is a cheap early step that shows what the employer has recorded before positions harden. It is not a substitute for disclosure in litigation: once a claim is filed, a motion for discovery in the Labor Court usually reaches more material, including documents the employer would not volunteer. Attendance records deserve particular attention, because Section 25 of the Hours of Work and Rest Law 5711-1951 requires the employer to keep an accurate record, and gaps in it shift the burden of proof on overtime claims. See our guide to employee monitoring and workplace privacy in Israel.

From the full guide: Employee Monitoring and Workplace Privacy in Israel: What Employers Can and Cannot Do

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