Shilo Shalom’s Lawsuit Against National Insurance Institute

Shilo Shalom, a former contestant on Big Brother, is suing the National Insurance Institute for recognition of a disability he says he sustained during the 2024 season of the reality show. He claims the injury occurred while he was washing dishes.

In his lawsuit submitted to the regional labor court in Bat Yam, Shalom recounts the incident that took place at the filming location in Neve Ilan. “While washing dishes, a glass broke in my right hand, cutting my fourth finger. I had to get stitches at a clinic,” he mentioned in his affidavit.

He further explained that just four days later, his hand began to swell significantly. After visiting the hospital, doctors found an infection that required surgery and hospital stay with antibiotics. “They had to reopen my hand and finger to drain the pus,” he said.

Shalom asserts that the injury still impacts him negatively. “I have limited mobility now, and there’s constant itching. I can’t close the finger completely, and I’ve lost feeling in half of it,” he stated.

Initially, his application for disability benefits was turned down by the National Insurance Institute, which claimed he wasn’t insured as a salaried employee. They argued that there was no clear employer-employee relationship between him and Endemol, the company producing Big Brother.

Shalom is now appealing this decision, aiming to prove that he was indeed an employee of the show. He notes that he earned about 5,000 shekels (roughly $1,300) per week and insists he was not a voluntary participant. “The production hired me to portray a character, and that contract could end only when the audience or producers decided,” he explained.

Moreover, he alleges that after his injury, the producers put him up for elimination with the remaining contestants and decided he would be voted out. He claims they even asked him not to wear a bandage during live broadcasts to preserve his character.

In response, the National Insurance Institute stated, “To qualify for work disability benefits, one must demonstrate that the injury affected their work capacity and that an employer-employee relationship existed. In both the contract he signed and his lawsuit, Shalom acknowledged there was no such relationship, making his claim contradictory to the law. If the Big Brother production recognizes him as an employee, he is welcome to reapply. It’s also worth noting that a similar claim against the production was reportedly dismissed in the past.”