The Beersheva District Labor Court has rejected the petition for an injunction against the closure of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.'s (NYSE: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) plant in Ashdod and the dismissal of its employees there. "Teva has a management prerogative to close the plant," Judge Yonatan Cohen ruled.
Teva plans to close the plant in 2019. Most of the employees are due to be dismissed shortly, and the remainder when the plant finally closes.
The Histadrut (General Federation of Labor in Israel), which represents the workers at the Ashdod site, asked for an injunction, and accused Teva of lack of bona fides, claiming that there were potential buyers for the plant. The court rejected the claim, and found that there were contradictions in the evidence of the Histadrut representative.
The judge recommended to the sides that "they would do well if instead of continuing with baseless legal claims they would try to obtain the best possible outcome for the workers, allowing them to leave with maximum severance conditions."
Teva plans to close the Ashdod plant as part of a company-wide streamlining process. 175 people are employed at the plant, which produces transfusion and intravenous feeding products. Teva will continue to sell these products, but will import them rather than manufacturing them itself.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 19, 2018
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