Like an earlier ruling by the same court for a different employee, the court ruled that she had no basis to appeal.
The National Labor Court on Monday rejected Sara Netanyahu’s appeal of a May 31 NIS 97,500 judgment against her for abuse by a former employee in the Prime Minister’s residence.
Like an earlier ruling by the same court for a different employee, the court ruled that she had no basis to appeal simply because of the bad press she received since the Israeli government was the party that was sued and was paying the bill.
In May, the victorious plaintiff and former employee, Guy Eliyahu, had joined the company of Meni Naftali as victors over Netanyahu at the trial court level of the labor court. Now both have beaten back Netanyahu’s appeals as well.
The May judgment by the Jerusalem District Labor Court for Eliyahu broke down into NIS 65,000 for emotional abuse, NIS 7,500 reimbursement for legal costs and NIS 25,000 for violating laws protecting employees from working beyond certain hours.
Judge Dita Prugnin slammed Netanyahu’s conduct toward Eliyahu and other employees as “insufferable, humiliating and rising to the level of abusive.”
The Netanyahus family lawyer, Yossi Cohen, responded at the time that “the real abusive conduct was of Judge Prugnin, who…again ignored…the testimony of Mrs. Netanyahu.”
Despite his attack on Judge Prugnin, the National Labor Court took her side.
Lawyer Naomi Landau, who represented Eliyahu, stated in May: “Guy Eliyahu and Meni Naftali are heroes. They stood with courage against powerful evil forces who tried to destroy them…I have never encountered such an evil employer.”
In September 2015, Eliyahu’s lawsuit came under review, focusing on his allegations of being abused, underpaid and overworked.
Eliyahu claimed that Netanyau asked him “to bring her food, and when I would return with the requested food she would accuse me of trying to make her fat.”
He testified in September 2015 that on one occasion, he was called back to the residence after he had already gone home. It was after midnight and he came back “just…to heat up a bowl of soup for Mrs. Netanyahu.”
He also said that upon returning to the residence he was reprimanded by Netanyahu and told that he must come back to the residence no matter the hour if she wanted food.
Eliyahu also claimed that he was called back on another occasion because he had not wished Mrs. Netanyahu goodnight when he left work. This happened despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu telling him that he could leave at 12:30 a.m.
State attorney Kochavit Netzah Dolev, essentially representing Netanyahu (though technically the state is the defendant and not her personally) had pounced on this last point in her September 2015 cross-examination, getting Eliyahu to admit that she was not really demanding that he had to say the words “goodnight” to her, but that she wanted him to ask her if she needed anything and to ask her permission to leave.
Further, Dolev got Eliyahu to admit that his overtime work sheets were not accurate. Eliyahu, however, explained that he was instructed by supervisor Ezra Seidoff (also a target in the case) to fill out the sheets in a specific way, taking into account the whole work week, regardless of whether they were accurate for specific days.
Ultimately, the court was convinced by Eliyahu’s overall account, leaving Netanyahu zero for two in recent labor court bouts.
As reported by The Jerusalem Post