The Knesset Labor and Welfare Committee is expected to extend until March 1 the validity of the emergency workers' protection order, which was issued when the war broke out. The directive protects from dismissal, inter alia, evacuees, abductees, missing persons and their families, as well as spouses of reservists. However, Israel Hayom has learned that the directive does not protect bereaved parents whose children were murdered in the October 7th attack, including at the Nova Party and the surrounding communities. According to the law, it is forbidden to fire a parent who martyred the IDF, but as stated, the law does not provide a solution for a bereaved parent whose son was murdered outside of a military framework.
Chaos: Footage from the Nova party near Kibbutz Reim (archive)
For example, it is the outrageous story of N., a bookkeeper at a company in southern Israel, whose son was murdered at a nature party in Reim. About a month after the events of October 7, her employer asked to put her on unpaid leave, and when she refused, fired her. N.'s son was presumed missing for several days until his body was identified. The week he was absent, N. did not work. She searched for her son, was sure he had been kidnapped, and waited for every shred of information about his fate. About a week later, he was notified of his death. Immediately after the swearing-in, she went back to work.
Since the company's office is located in the south, its managers announced that the work would be done from home. N. worked from home for about a month, except for two days when she went to the office to work on her salary. She admits that it was difficult for her to return to work and that it is impossible to complain to her. She dealt with the murder of her eldest son and the harsh knowledge of what had happened during those hours. Still, she says, "It was important for me to keep working to keep my sanity."
Begged to stay at work
In mid-November, she received a letter of unpaid leave from her employer. She refused and begged him to keep her at work. "I begged him. I told him, you're taking away the only sane place I have. He told me I wasn't working enough, only eighty percent and he couldn't afford to hire me," she says. After refusing to go on unpaid leave, she was effectively forcibly removed when her access to the company's system was blocked. She was asked to return the company's vehicle within two days and received a summons for a hearing. In the transcript of the hearing, the company's manager tells her that the hearing is taking place due to the state of war and the company's financial situation, adding: "I offered you unpaid leave, but you refused. I explained your difficult mental state and you asked me to fire you."
Welfare Committee Discussion (Archive), Photo: Knesset Spokesperson's Office – Danny Shem Tov
N. was fired and is now fighting her employer to get her rights. Among other things, and due to the fact that he claimed she worked less than she wanted, he even deducted a number of vacation days worth about seven thousand shekels. She doesn't have the energy to wage a long legal war against her employer, she says. She focuses primarily on her survival, her grief for her son, and efforts to rehabilitate her children. "I have no powers. I'm exhausted. I have a lawyer who helps me for free and sends letters to my employer, but right now I just don't have the energy to start a legal battle and sue the company," she says, waiting to see whether, with the last salary of December, the employer will refund her vacation days that she obtusely deducted.
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