Landmark ruling on ’employer free speech’ and freedom of association in Israel
Israel’s National Labor Court on January 2 ruled that a company whose employees seek to unionize must refrain from expressing its views on the subject in communications with employees either individually or as a group. The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed with the Court by the national center Histradrut concerning anti-union actions at the communications company Pelephone.
The ruling expressly forbids the company from collecting information on employees exercising their right to organize and specifies that “”Pelephone will refrain from initiating personal meetings with employees, with groups of employees, regarding exercising the right of association; and that the company will not use the means of communication at its disposal and its access to employees, in spreading messages against the organizing, through text messages to cellular phones or distributing letters to employees through e-mail.”