In a ruling received by the Regional Labor Court in Beer Sheva, an employee of the Istha tourism company was recently recognized as a work-related injury victim. The ruling was made in an appeal against the decisions of the National Insurance Institute (NII).
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According to the lawsuit filed with the Labor Court through attorney Tal Yagur, the employee was injured while taking documents out of her vehicle, with the intention of working on them from home, as she had done by virtue of her position for years.
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In the NSC's decision to reject her claim, it was claimed that the plaintiff was not an employee of the company at the time of the accident. According to Attorney Yagur, the employee began her work at Istha in 2003, and regularly worked from home. The fall occurred in June 2019.
On the day of the accident, the employee went out to her car early in the morning, with the aim of removing documents from groups under her responsibility. According to the allegations, while returning home, the employee tripped and was thrown with great force onto the sidewalk. Neighbors in the area heard her screams, called an ambulance, and she was rushed to Soroka Medical Center, where she was diagnosed with a concussion.
Following her injury, she was hospitalized and underwent surgery.
The employee filed a claim with the National Insurance Institute, demanding that she be recognized as a work-related injury victim. This claim, as mentioned, was rejected.
According to the National Security Council, in the month prior to the accident, the employee was given a final settlement and employment termination at Istha, after the employee requested to resign.
According to the National Labor Relations Board, at the time of the accident the employee was not registered as self-employed, nor as an employee, because she had terminated her employment with the company - and therefore she should not be recognized as a work-related injury victim.
In her distress, the employee turned to attorney Yagur, who filed an appeal on her behalf against the National Labor Court's decision with the Beer Sheva Regional Labor Court.
According to the lawsuit, the employee did not resign or get fired - but rather moved to work at another branch of the company, due to troubled relations between her and her supervisor.
Judge Yosef Yousef, who headed the tribunal, ruled in his ruling that the evidence presented to him confirmed the employee's position. Among the evidence, Judge Yousef noted, were WhatsApp messages and emails that the plaintiff sent in real time to her colleagues at work, which confirmed her version.
The branch manager who hired her was also brought to testify, and confirmed that the employee had indeed moved branches.
In addition, the manager of the company's payroll department also confirmed that although the employee was actually paid off in May 2019, she continued to work for the company, was not given a notice of dismissal, and only a week after the accident did the employer fill out the alleged retirement forms.
Representatives of the National Security Council argued in the hearing that the employee did not report the accident shortly after it occurred, and therefore she is not entitled to recognition.
Despite this, the ruling determined that in practice, it was the employee's husband who reported the accident to the company's human resources department, since his wife's condition, who suffered an injury and underwent surgery, as mentioned, did not allow her to do so herself.
Judge Yousefi summed up his ruling with these words: "From the entire picture that unfolded before the court, it clearly emerges that the plaintiff was a full-time employee of the 'Ista' company before, during, and after her injury.".
He rejected the National Insurance Institute's version, according to which the employment relationship ended before the accident, and ruled in favor of the employee for attorney's fees in the amount of 5,000 shekels.
