Can an employee in Israel take sick leave or vacation days during the notice period?

The rules make sense once you see what notice is for. The Advance Notice for Dismissal and Resignation Law 5761-2001 gives a departing employee a paid window to find the next job, so allowing an employer to fill that window with leave the employee had already earned would empty the entitlement of content. That is why the Annual Leave Law caps the overlap, and why unused vacation days that were never taken are paid out in cash on termination instead. The employer keeps one alternative: it can waive the working notice altogether and pay the equivalent salary in lieu, ending the employment immediately. Sick pay follows its own scale under the Sick Pay Law, which grants nothing for the first day of illness, half pay for the second and third days, and full pay from the fourth day.

Two timing traps catch foreign employees. The first is a dismissal handed to an employee who is already signed off sick, because the Sick Pay Law as amended restricts dismissing an employee during a period of entitlement to sick pay, and notice given in that window can be challenged. The second is the assumption that illness buys extra time in Israel. It does not, so a worker whose visa or relocation depends on the end date should plan around the original date rather than an extended one. Employees on a B/1 work permit should also remember that the permit is tied to the sponsoring employer, and the clock on remaining in Israel starts at termination, not at the end of a sick note. See the full guide to the notice period in Israel.

From the full guide: Notice Period in Israel for Employees and Employers

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