Manager suspended over slap to employee

It was not clear why it had taken so long to suspend the head of the municipal tax department, Mark Ovadia.

By MIRIAM BULWAR DAVID-HAY (TRANSLATED)
Four months after a senior municipal official was accused of having slapped an employee in the face, Mayor Ron Huldai has finally decided to act to suspend him, reports Yediot Tel Aviv. The newspaper said it was not clear why it had taken so long to suspend the head of the municipal tax department, Mark Ovadia, especially since the city prosecutor had decided that he should face charges over the allegations. According to the report, four months ago allegations surfaced that Ovadia had slapped the face of a female employee during the course of an argument. The municipal prosecutor investigated the charges and recommended that Ovadia come up before the Public Employees' Disciplinary Court. But no action was taken to remove him from his position, and he and the employee have continued to work in the same department. The newspaper said that in previous cases where an employee was accused of abusing another employee, the mayor had acted much more quickly to suspend the accused person, and "the big question" was why he had taken so long in this case. No response was reported from the mayor.