Story of a Complaint: Substitute teacher receives salary - but only after two years

Following the Office of the Ombudsman's inquiry, the teaching hours of the complainant, who had worked as a substitute teacher, were forwarded to the Ministry of Education and she was paid a salary for her work two years previously

A substitute teacher had been employed in 2019 to fill in for another teacher at a school in the centre of Israel. She had worked for a total of 28 hours, yet had not received a salary for her work. The school informed her that it had notified the Ministry of Education of her work hours, but the Ministry of Education claimed that it had received no such information and was thus unable to pay her a salary.

For two years, the complainant made repeated inquiries with the Ministry of Education regarding the matter, yet to no avail. She thus reluctantly turned to the Office of the Ombudsman. Following the intervention of the Office, the Ministry of Education contacted the school at which the complainant had worked, in order to investigate the matter directly with it. The Ministry of Education received notification of the hours that the complainant had worked and paid her the salary owing her.

The complainant thanked the Office of the Ombudsman and the complaint-handler for their assistance.