The Practice for Receiving a Dismissal Permit to Dismiss, Reduce Scope of Position or Employee Income in accordance with the Employment of Women Law, 5714-1954, prohibits such dismissal or reduction of an employee in certain situations such as pregnancy, fertility treatment and maternity leave, absent the receipt of a permit from the Supervisor of the Employment of Women Law at the Ministry of the Economy and Industry. In the event that the Supervisor finds a link between the dismissal and the pregnancy or fertility treatment the dismissal will not the approved and the employer may even face a claim for unfair discrimination.
Recently, the said Ministry introduced some changes to the Practice, as follows:
For the sake of completeness, it should be mentioned that recently the National Labor Court decided (in the matter of Yaniv Strategic Marketing) that the Supervisor of the Employment of Women Law is empowered to permit dismissal not only as from the date of the decision or retroactively but also to decide that the period for the entry into force of the permit will apply on a future date, and thereby extend to the protection of the rights of the employee after birth with the aim of providing the employee with continuance of employment.
References: Practice of Ministry of the Economy – Filing an Application for the receipt of a Dismissal Permit/Permit to Change Scope of Position/Income pursuant to the Employment of Women Law
CA (National) 44996-05-14 the State of Israel v Yaniv Strategic Marketing Ltd (2016)
Recently, the said Ministry introduced some changes to the Practice, as follows:
- Organizations involved in employee rights will be able to accompany pregnant women during the dismissal process in parallel to such women being represented by a lawyer (Section 7.2 of the Practice).
- The period for the employee to response to the allegations made by the employer in its application for a dismissal permit from the Supervisor, will be extended from 7 days to 12 days (Section 6.2 of the Practice).
- The period given to the employee to response to the employer claims to the Ministry of the Economy, in the event of new claims being made by the employer will be extended (Section 7.11 of the Practice).
For the sake of completeness, it should be mentioned that recently the National Labor Court decided (in the matter of Yaniv Strategic Marketing) that the Supervisor of the Employment of Women Law is empowered to permit dismissal not only as from the date of the decision or retroactively but also to decide that the period for the entry into force of the permit will apply on a future date, and thereby extend to the protection of the rights of the employee after birth with the aim of providing the employee with continuance of employment.
References: Practice of Ministry of the Economy – Filing an Application for the receipt of a Dismissal Permit/Permit to Change Scope of Position/Income pursuant to the Employment of Women Law
CA (National) 44996-05-14 the State of Israel v Yaniv Strategic Marketing Ltd (2016)