Section 25(a)(5) of the Labor Court Law authorizes the Labor Court to hear any matter that is granted jurisdiction "in any other law".
- There is an employment relationship between the Prison Service and the prison guard, and therefore claims filed by prison guards on the basis of the employment relationship fall within the jurisdiction of the Labor Court. This is subject to Section 129 of the Prisons Ordinance (New Version), 5732-1971 (hereinafter: the Ordinance or the Prisons Ordinance) – which was added in 1971 – and it reads as follows:
"(a) An action that objects to the use of the powers given under this Ordinance with respect to the appointment of a senior prison guard, the appointment of a prison guard to the position, his transfer from one position to another or from one place to another in the position, his promotion or demotion from his rank, his suspension from his position or his dismissal or discharge from service, or his employment in work outside his duties within the framework of the Prison Service shall not be considered as an action arising from an employee-employer relationship for the purposes of section 24 ofthe Labor Court Law. 1969.
(b) In this section, "prison guard" – including a temporary added prison guard."
A similar provision is found in relation to police officers In section 93A At the behest of the police.
- These provisions are based on the special role of the police and the Prison Service and the hierarchical organizational structure that derives from it. According to these provisions, certain grounds, which relate mainly to the internal organization of the manpower, and which are significantly influenced by the hierarchical structure of the police or the Prison Service, do not constitute grounds for employment relations for the purposes of the Labor Court's jurisdiction. Thus it is stated in the explanatory notes to this provision (Hatzim, 973, 5732-108, our emphases):
"... The proposed laws are intended to determine that the status of a police officer or prison guard is not the same as that of another salaried employee for judicial purposes under the Labor Court Law. The ways in which a person is employed as a police officer or as a prison guard, the conditions of his enlistment in the service, his personal liability to the public, the direct responsibility he bears towards the public and the law, the many other powers granted to him upon his enlistment, his special conditions of service, the discipline that binds him and the severe disciplinary punishment, the methods of discharge and dismissal from service – all of these are completely different from what is customary in the field of labor relations. Whether the employer is private or public.