There is a television show in the United States called Undercover Boss. Undercover Boss is a reality tv show in which the boss of a large corporation goes undercover in his or her own company to find out what the average employee has to go through. The idea is that by doing that s/he will see the challenges they have to overcome, how to improve the company both for the customers and for the employees, and by going undercover it gives them a real picture of the company, whereas people might not be so open to talking critically if the CEO just came in as is and asked what the problems and challenges are.

Israeli Undercover Boss

MK Lia Shemtov

One MK took the lessons of Undercover Boss to heart. MK Lia Shemtov (Israel Beiteinu) has been promoting a new law for a long time that has been stalled since the last government. It is a law that protects contract workers, usually in the service industry - the people who clean the floors and bathrooms of malls, hospitals, etc and work for "kablanim" - contractors who dole out the work as necessary. Currently, the employee is only able to protect himself or herself by contact through the kablan, and s/he can only sue the kablan, when necessary, for improving the work conditions. If the new law were to pass, the employee could also find a solution through the owner of the location where the work is being done, and sue that person as well for appropriate work conditions.

I saw an article in the newspaper that MK Lia Shemtov is trying to get the law pushed through again. In an effort to revive the proposal, Shemtov decided to roll up her sleeves and see the situation firsthand. She went undercover. She contacted an agency who found her work. After her day in the Knesset, she would change her clothes and head out to her job. She started out cleaning bathrooms in Malha Mall in Jerusalem. She was then "promoted" to cleaning the food court. Then she was transferred to work in Sheba Hospital near Tel Aviv, where she cleaned operating rooms after surgery.

I don't know if the law being proposed is a good one or not. Nor do I know if the proposed law actually would improve the conditions of the employees or not. Either way, kol hakavod to MK Shemtov for her initiative in really trying to check out the situation to the point of getting her own hands dirty, both figuratively and literally, to work on this law.