Company pays for not letting employee say goodbye

The National Labor Court ruled that the company had no right to ban the employee from entering the premises.

An employee who was summarily fired from his job and banned from entering the premises where he worked to say goodbye to his co-workers has been awarded compensation by the National Labor Court.

Dan Ben Zvi was dismissed from his job as a marketing and export manager at an irrigation control systems company Eldar Shany Greenhouse where he worked for just under a year. He was dismissed by his employers and ordered to stay away from the premises during his period of notice.

Ben Zvi filed a claim for hundreds of thousands of shekels in compensation plus benefits against Eldar Shany, which he claimed had no real reason to dismiss him. The regional labor court, which initially heard the case, found he had been dismissed because he was unsuitable both professionally and personally, but awarded him NIS 10,000 compensation for the distress he suffered after not being given an opportunity to state his case at a preliminary hearing.

In their ruling last week, Judges Amiram Rabinovich, Lea Glicksman Kocavi and Yigal Plitman ordered Eldar Shany to pay Ben Zvi a further NIS 20,000 compensation for violating their duty to act in good faith and for distress caused to the employee.

"Nearly every case of dismissal causes distress to the person losing his job, and the tribunal does not, as a rule, award compensation for distress," the judges noted. "However, the manner in which Eldar treated the claimant - giving him his notice 'over the telephone' and then immediately making the news of his dismissal common knowledge - was improper.

The tribunal also ruled that, "The immediate ban on him entering the premises and having the opportunity to say goodbye to his work colleagues was also inappropriate. No claim or proof has been offered suggesting that the claimant would have caused damage or disrupted work if allowed on the premises."

http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/DocView.asp?did=1000351392&fid=1725

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Company pays for not letting employee say goodbye