Last update - 00:00 27/12/2006
Market fires worker who discloses her cancer
By Ruth Sinai
A department manager in a supermarket in the Sharon region was fired from her job immediately after telling her supervisors she was ill with cancer. The employee appealed to the Tel Aviv Labor Court, maintaining that cessation of her employment was a violation of the Equal Rights for People with Disabilities Law.
P.M., a 52-year-old resident of the Sharon Region had worked for supermarket for three years, in a position that included ordering and inspecting merchandise, arranging goods on shelves, and other tasks. Her salary for this full-time job was slightly higher than minimum wage. Supervisors had never complained about her performance, and when she returned from leave, she was told that her absence was felt in the mistakes made by those who replaced her.
At the end of October, P.M. and other department managers were told to wash the floor of the supermarket, because the machine used to perform this task was broken. While washing the floor, P.M. slipped, broke a tooth, and fractured three ribs. Despite that, she worked from home, during her sick leave, ordering merchandise from suppliers. But subsequent medical examinations revealed a malignant tumor in her breast, and she was told she had to undergo a mastectomy, followed by chemotherapy. Two days after she received the results of these tests, and though still on sick leave, she went to work at the supermarket and informed the store manager and head cashier of her medical condition. She said she wished to speak to the store's owner about her medical situation when he came to the store. At the end of the day, both of them told her that they relayed her request to the owner, but he said he was too busy to speak with her.
Two days later, she returned to the store and told the store's accountant about her predicament and asked her to speak with the owner. P.M. also repeated her request to meet with the owner to the store manager and the head cashier. Later that day, she was once again told that the owner had been in the store and received her message, before leaving. At 3 P.M., when she finished working, the store manager handed her a letter informing her she had been fired, with no explanation.
"I do not have to give a reason for firing her," store owner Ilan Gai said in response to questions from Haaretz. "I do not have to employ anyone. I do not have a contract with her." In addition, he said that he did not know that she had cancer, and that he fired her because of losses sustained in the store, which required him to lay off several employees.
Gai refused to accept a letter from P.M.'s attorney, Itai Svirsky of the Tel Aviv University Law and Welfare Clinic. Gai also failed to attend a hearing in court, on Monday, claiming that he did not receive a subpoena, nor would he attend another hearing, on Tuesday, because his lawyer is abroad.
"It is unreasonable to assume that a disclosure so alarming and significant did not reach the owner's ears," Svirsky and two students who assisted him, Or-Li Tzur and Maia Schneider, wrote in the appeal. "One might conclude that the operation and anticipated treatment ...evoked tremendous uncertainty in the owners and a great deal of concern regarding the appellant's physical limitations, which would be expressed, at the very least, in additional, though temporary, absences."
"It is forbidden to treat people this way," P.M. says.