After being promoted, a police officer, a Harvard graduate, was fired upon returning to the country. • The court awarded her hundreds of thousands of NIS compensation.

• Photo Archive // ​​Photo: Moshe Shay

From public bodies we always expect more to comply with the law, but in the case of a chief who was considered an outstanding officer in the US, not only did the police not comply with the law, it was also charged by the regional labor court to pay her more than half a million shekels, while the tribunal States that the officer was fired in violation of the Women's Work Act, discriminated against in violation of the Equal Employment Opportunity Law and also incurred non-monetary harm due to the violation of her dignity as an employee.

According to the lawsuit, the officer, who is a lawyer, served with the Israel Police at the rank of Chief of Staff from 1999 until her retirement in 2014, due to poor health. She joined the Israeli police after being certified as a lawyer, and served as an officer in the National Fraud Investigation Unit. In 2009, she was accepted into the program. Master's Degree in Public Administration at Harvard University in the USA.

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When she was not allowed to go to school while receiving a full salary, a course known as "exempt from duty", applied for and received free leave. Near the end of her studies in the US, the plaintiff sought and obtained permission to extend the period of the IAA for another year in order to complete an applied internship of her studies in the US. 

The officer, who, according to her claim, even before leaving the country with promises of promotion upon her return to Israel, was not found to be in any position and was required to stay in forced labor until she was assigned to an administrative position in September 2012. In the next two years, her health deteriorated. After about 15 years Service and after being summoned to a police medical committee, she was released from police service and the officer contacted the officials responsible for exercising her rights, but this did not bear fruit.

About ten days before her retirement, during an interview with the VIP, she learned that in accordance with legal advice received by the police, it was found that there was no reason to contact the women's labor commissioner, which, after 15 years of service, left the police because of poor health. In order to acquire retirement rights during the three-year period during her stay in the ILA, the plaintiff was forced to purchase these years from the retirement grant she received, amounting to NIS 127,195. 

Police on the other hand claimed that the officer's retirement was made after a medical committee found she was unfit for service, and she chose not to appeal that determination. It was also alleged that the police came to her by approving her departure to the USSR by the commissioner, and then extended the period of the IDF, at her request, and the officer was well aware of the fact that the police were not obliged to maintain her IDF during her stay in the USSR. , And all in accordance with the commander's order.

"The police even found her specially tailored roles for her, and she did not fulfill them for her absence for 300 days due to illness during her last two years of work, and the prosecutor agreed with her retirement and did not apply for it in real time," the defense wrote. "The plaintiff did not commit to the position she was found to be in the casualty section, was frequently absent, did not perform her job and her approach to the system was negative and non-advancing ... The absences did not hurt her salary."

In the ruling, Judge Oren Segev and Public Representative Eli Cohen stated that the officer did not dispute that a very small group of police officers accepted to study at the prestigious Harvard University program, and since the program was founded to date, only seven police officers have been accepted, including the plaintiff Unlike other members of the limited group, the plaintiff was not included in the Wexner Foundation Scholarship Program and obtained funding from another Harvard University fund. 

"Police did not act lawfully"

The court rejected police allegations that the Harvard curriculum was excluded from the recognized study abroad program while exempt from office, and that it was not customary to send officers to the rank of plaintiff abroad. "We did not find in the defendant's argument a satisfactory explanation as to why, unlike her male officers, the plaintiff was not fired ... We therefore believe that the plaintiff should have been treated equally as the police did with the rest of her equals, Kerry, the officers The men admitted to university studies, "the ruling said, adding that" it is appropriate that in every public body, not least in the Israeli police, there should be a high degree of equal and equal treatment of men and women. "

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Regarding the fact that she was issued to the USSR's forced administration, the ruling states that while it was not proven that the police had a desire to harass or harass the officer, the Tribunal believes that the police did not treat the officer lawfully by forcing the USSR for about a year. All the financial implications involved. 

"Assuming that no proper role was found to suit her skills, the police should have summoned the plaintiff to a hearing prior to her release from service, and not left 'air-dependent' without livelihood and uncertainty for such a long period. Alternatively, the police had to 'absorb' the waiting period Full salary every month, "the ruling added, adding:" In this context, we have nothing to do with what was said by former Police Commissioner, Mr. John Danino, which does not allow a situation where a returning officer should be at home and not work. 

"Injury to Officer Honor"

"Recall that we are dealing with an officer who has been widely praised by her superiors for her skills and contribution to the organization. The fact that she was forced to sit at home inaction has affected her not only financially but also in her honor as an employee, and therefore we find that she is entitled to appropriate compensation."

In summary, the tribunal ruled that the police will pay the former officer an amount of approximately NIS 650,000, of which compensation for not being exempted from duty, at the rate of 12 salaries of approximately NIS 206,000, as well as a similar amount for compensation for forced administrative leave, Compensation for violation of the Women's Labor Law of NIS 10,000 and Compensation for Violation of the Equal Opportunity Law and Misery of NIS 50,000 each.