Religious workers to arrive late to work in order to pray at end of DST

New amendment to the law would allow religiously observant workers to arrive late to work in the last weeks of October.

By JEREMY SHARON
Eli Ben Dahan and Yariv Levin 370 (photo credit: Courtesy)
Eli Ben Dahan and Yariv Levin 370
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Deputy Minister for Religious Services Eli Ben-Dahan has initiated an amendment to the legislation on daylight saving time, currently making its way through the Knesset, that would allow religiously observant workers to arrive late to work in the last weeks of October in order to be able to pray in the morning without any deductions from their salary.
The new law, which passed its first reading in Knesset this week, will extend daylight saving time till the end of October from the relatively early period it was at previously of ending before the fast of Yom Kippur.
But by late October, sunrise, the earliest time one may say the morning prayers according to Jewish law, is relatively late in the day making it harder for people who wish to pray before going to work.
Ben-Dahan’s office said that this problem particularly affects workers employed in manual labor and in low-wage jobs.
Coalition chairman Yariv Levin (Likud) agreed to the Deputy Minister’s proposal that workers who are accustomed to pray the morning service could arrive late to work in the last two weeks of October, without deductions from their salary.
The coalition will now support the proposed amendment in the Knesset Committee for the Interior .
“I welcome the extension of daylight saving time which will benefit the Israeli economy,” said Ben-Dahan. “At the same time, I’m working to ensure that Israeli citizens, especially those with low wages or who do manual labor will not be harmed and so I have requested that they be enabled to pray, according to their sacred custom.”