Municipality Playing Hardball with Nursery School Teachers

Recently, a friend of mine asked me about a 3-year non-compete clause his nursery teacher wife was asked by the city of Jerusalem to sign.

Last year, the Knesset passed a new law providing for free nursery school education for 3 and 4 year olds (see article here.)  In order to immediately implement this law, the city asked local nursery teachers who already had private classes in their apartments if they wanted to fill the positions available for the city nurseries. Many of these women already had established reputations in their neighborhoods. Now, they could go to work for the city and bring their clientele with them.

My friend's wife had been running her own nursery program for a few years and applied for a position and was accepted. She recruited children for the class but had not yet signed a contract with the city. When she received the contract, she was surprised to see that it had a 3-year non-compete clause that looked something like this:

Short and Sweet Supreme Court Decision

In a decision from yesterday (presumably related to access for Jews to the Temple Mount) the Supreme Court made its point concisely.

"The parties, or some of them, apparently think this case is being handled by this Court in its role as nursery teacher. Last chance: The appellant is requested to submit its request to the municipality pursuant to its announcement from July 9, 2012 and the municipality should review it accordingly. Updates are due by August 31, 2012."  

-Hat Tip- Ariel O.