The Tel Aviv District Labor Court has ordered Israel Post Company Ltd. to pay NIS 680,000 compensation to three senior employees who were fired. The court ruled that there were reasonable grounds for suspecting that they were fired for political reasons. Israel Post said in 2005 that the three men were dismissed as part of a restructuring plan.
The claimants allege that extraneous political reasons were behind their being fired, and that the firing procedures were flawed. They submitted to the court a document by Israel Post deputy general manager Iki Cohen, which classified employees by their political opinions or party affiliation. The document also included recommendations on the promotion or termination of employees.
The document listed one of the fired employees as affiliated with Meretz, a left-wing party, “who can and should be moved”; a second employee, listed as affiliated with the Labor Party, was someone “who should be respected but suspected”; and the third was also listed as affiliated with the Labor Party. The document also listed employees as “our people”, and these employees kept their jobs.
Then-Postal Service director general Yosef Shelly testified about the importance of political considerations at the Postal Service, and that political pressure was applied on it for the filling of positions when he was director general.
Judge Yitzhak Lubotzky ruled in favor of the claimants. He ruled that the dismissal procedure for the three men was illegal, and that there were reasonable grounds for suspecting that extraneous political reasons were behind the dismissals.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on April 1, 2007
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