Association for the Advancement of Aviation Workers in Israel (R.A.) · Registration No. 580647493
We bring flight attendants and other aviation workers in Israel together under one roof — for a shared voice, clear information, and professional backing against employers and regulators.
The association was founded in 2018 by Adv. Lior Kastoriano Yaniv, Chairperson of the association, and Doina Somekh — both former flight attendants. Kastoriano, who served as an employee-committee representative at El Al, discovered that wage components promised under collective agreements were not actually being paid to flight attendants for years, alongside long hours of ground work that went uncompensated entirely.
Since then, the association's work has grown beyond flight attendants, and it now represents aviation workers across Israel's aviation industry — ground and air crew alike — on three fronts: enforcing workers' rights through legal action, advancing legislative change to regulate employment conditions in the industry, and building a community where workers have clear information and a shared voice.
This expansion was formally reflected on August 17, 2026, when the association changed its registered name from "Association for the Advancement of the Status of Civil Flight Attendants in Israel" to "Association for the Advancement of Aviation Workers in Israel (R.A.)" — a name that reflects our position that the rights of the broader public of aviation workers in Israel are not being advanced as they should be.
The association filed a motion to certify a class action against El Al and the Histadrut, with estimated damages of roughly NIS 650 million, over wage components promised under collective agreements but never actually paid to about 3,000 employees. The motion was filed on 12/31/2025 with the Tel Aviv Regional Labor Court (case 88817-12-25). Read the full update ←
We petition the relevant government ministries with proposed legislative amendments — including repealing the exemption of aircrew from the Hours of Work and Rest Law, and making it easier for workers to bring a class action when the representative labor union fails to enforce the agreement it signed. Read the full submissions ←
Telegram, Instagram and Facebook channels where we share ongoing updates, and a growing membership base that lets the association act on behalf of a broad group of industry workers.
A motion to certify a class action against El Al and the Histadrut, alleging systematic harm to the wage and social rights of permanent employees who retired or were dismissed during the relevant period.
The petitioners are former El Al employees and the association working to advance their status. At this stage the petitioners' names are not published, in line with the proceeding's own decision — so we do not disclose them here either.
The claim alleges that for years El Al applied a uniform wage mechanism in which collectively agreed wage components were "absorbed" into a technical payroll item called a "minimum wage supplement" — so that the base wage used to calculate pension, severance, and retirement benefits was understated.
According to the motion, roughly 3,000 employees are affected, with an estimated average damage of about NIS 216,255 per employee over roughly 7 years. Total alleged damages for the class are estimated at about NIS 648,765,000.
According to the motion, the Histadrut is named over an alleged failure in its duty of fair representation of employees over time, which the petitioners claim allowed the alleged mechanism at El Al to continue.
The motion alleges that repeated inquiries were sent to El Al and the Histadrut over roughly three years before it was filed, including a warning letter, without the alleged harm being corrected.
At a principled level, the petitioners seek the return of funds allegedly withheld from employees, and a correction to how the base wage and related benefits are calculated — so that the money is returned, as the motion puts it, "to its rightful owners": the employees.
The Labor Court has not yet ruled on certifying the proceeding as a class action. The claims in the filings have not yet been examined by the court, and all details on this site are based on the proceeding's filings as submitted — not on a court ruling.
The information on this page is based on the legal filings submitted by the association and its public statements, and reflects the petitioners' position as presented in them. The legal proceeding has not yet been decided, and the claims have not yet been examined by the court. The association will update this page as the proceeding develops.
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Last updated: August 2026
