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In a precedent-setting case (known as the Pelephone case), the National Labor Court
set the following guidelines and prohibitions for employers. These include pressuring
employees to terminate their union membership; increasing supervision on employees
due to their unionization attempts; threatening termination of employment; worsening
employment terms or the dismissal of committee members or active members of the
initial organization; negatively commenting against the organization; preventing labor
union members from entering the workplace; establishing an organization or committee
on behalf of employers; andmaking any changes in the employee's terms and conditions
that were in place before the employees began toorganize (neither positive nor negative
changes are allowed).
Applying the courts’ guidelines led to a rigorous approach against employers who fail
to comply with the prohibitions set forth in Pelephone case. For example, in the HOT
Mobile case, the labor court enforced the guidelines on a company that violated the
Pelephone prohibitions where employees attempted to unionize. The court granted
the union a financial relief of NIS1 million and, in addition, the company was ordered to
negotiate a collective bargaining agreement in order to settle employment terms. In the
Shlomo Insurance case, where the company violated the employees’ right to unionize,
the court laid a declaratory judgment stating that the company will recognize the
Histadrut (Israel’s largest labor organization) as the representative labor organization,
and granted the union a financial relief of NIS500, 000.
In the Menorah Mivtahim case, the court ruled that the prohibition on employers from
interfering with their employees’ unionization efforts within a labor union is so important
that the employer is also prohibited from showing “sympathy” or “lack of indifference”
towards internal organization, and if the employer actually shows such “sympathy”
or “lack of indifference,” the internal organization has a heavy burden to justify its
“authenticity” (i.e that it is not supported by the employer).
However, in the past three years, we are witnessing a great change in this
field, as white-collar employees (such as employees in the cellular, insurance,
accounting and high-tech industries) are unionizing as well.