An employee was called to a work meeting which was actually a termination hearing. Another hearing was scheduled after this meeting and thereafter the employee was terminated. Following the first hearing, the employee filed a complaint about company employees in Russia, alleging that they executed fictitious sales and later contended that he may not be terminated because he is a whistleblower.
The Court held that the employer must compensate the employee as he was not duly called for a hearing. Although the employee was duly terminated and for relevant reasons, the manner in which the employee was called to a work meeting where he was confronted with claims – was not duly made and, as such, the employer is to compensate the employee. The Employee Protection Law (Whistleblowing and Impairment of Integrity or Proper Management) prohibits termination of an employee for filing a complaint against the employer or another employee of the same employer, or who helped another employee file a complaint on the said matter. However, this law may be applied only in the first 12 months after the whistleblowing incident. In this case, the employee did not complain about the alleged corruption until after the hearing and, as such, he was clearly not terminated for that reason. In any event, 13 months passed between the dismissal and the filing of the claim, thus protection does not apply under this law.
Published in Afik News 296 20.11.2019