Walla to pay employee 53,000 shekels: "Unrealistic performance demands"

Walla Communications, owned by Eli Auzer, will pay 53,000 shekels to Mital Kaufman, the former editor of the website's "Celebs" section, who was dismissed about six months after being evacuated from her home in Kibbutz Miflasim following the events of October 7.

Kaufman, who worked at Walla from 2021 until her dismissal in March 2024, argued that her termination occurred during a highly sensitive period and that the company failed to account for the circumstances surrounding her evacuation. The Tel Aviv Regional Labor Court partially upheld her claims, ruling that Walla failed to act with the heightened duty of good faith required of an employer during a state of emergency.

According to the ruling, the company set "unrealistic" targets for Kaufman, raising the daily view count requirement for her section from 250,000 to 450,000 shortly before her dismissal. Judge Ariela Gilzer-Katz ruled that this was "an unrealistic threshold of demands that places the evacuated employee in front of a known failure in advance."

"Despite not meeting the new target, Kaufman presented a significant improvement in the section’s performance, with an increase of about 150% in views. This figure clearly contradicts the defendant’s claim regarding a continuous professional decline that justifies dismissal," the court noted.

Walla argued that the dismissal was based solely on professional considerations, citing a "lack of commitment" and "lack of initiative." However, the court ruled that the company failed to prove it acted with sufficient sensitivity toward an employee evacuated from her home due to the war.

During the hearing, Kaufman described her post-evacuation struggles: "Every time I got into the car, I was sure I had seen corpses on the road, so it took me a moment to come back to myself." The court further determined that the company’s conduct, including raising targets during the war, failed to reflect her personal circumstances.

At the conclusion of the proceedings, Walla was ordered to pay Kaufman 45,000 shekels in damages, 500 shekels in legal expenses, and 8,000 shekels in attorney’s fees, bringing the total payment to approximately 53,000 shekels.