David Thomson

A decade of slavery and a tax avoidance into the bargain

On 16^th May I learned from a well-placed source in a major anti-corruption watchdog that the Middle-East Thomsonreuters Office in downtown Cairo has been under investigation for tax avoidance. The issue poses a serious moral as well as business dilemma for the media giant that bills itself as the world's leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals.

The Irony of the situation is that the Company and Thomson family sponsor charity institutions such as Thomson-Reuters Foundation and its affiliate TrustLaw, and contribute heavily to charity works in Canada and elsewhere. Could it be wise then to cheat the Egyptians- of whom 40 percent live under poverty line- out of their money and use it to train young journalists or help a psychiatric center in Toronto?. The wealth of Mr Thomson and family, $23bn, is almost double Egypt's foreign currency reserves. It may be ironic still to have a look at the CSR views of the Company http://thomsonreuters.com/about/corporate_responsibility/.

Reuters used tens of editors in its offices in Cairo for more than ten years in circumstances tantamount to slavery. These people who worked as translators from English to Arabic in the only Arabic Service of the news agency, previously owned by the British, were deprived of any known rights. No social insurance, no healthcare, not even recognition that they work for the place. They were denied even replies to their emails sent to the administration. Furthermore, they only received a small fraction of their contracted colleagues’ salaries, a closed circle of relatives and acquaintances.  

They worked for eight hours a day non-stop except for a tea break for five days a week. At the end of the month they have to queue in front of an employee (contracted by the company to be trusted with the money) to receive envelopes with their monthly payment in a manner reminiscent of daily labor who throng the popular cafés in the outskirts of Cairo.

Whenever some editor shows any sign of discontent he or she was sent packing at once. The Service has always been headed by the most corrupt persons who were selected in the light of certain criteria and consequently turned it into a kind of family business where their friends, relatives, and cronies can get in, out and in again at any time and with the best privileges available.

Unfortunately no one dared object because he knows the consequences would be very bad. People were turned out just for showing any sign of discontent at the prevalent corruption or trying to assert their rights.  Of this huge pool some people were opted to be given contracts and good salaries, not based on efficiency but on good relationships with the corrupt senior editors.

We are all familiar with the story of Arif Al-Ali the UAE naval officer who was accused last year in the United States of enslaving his Filipino maid Elizabeth Cabitla Ballesteros and the ensuing campaign of the US press which caused the poor guy to stand accused of human trafficking. But the practice of Reuters was never described as that in Cairo simply because the legislations and laws are routinely manipulated by lawyers on behalf of employers. The Labour Law enacted by the the former President Hosny Mubarak strongly favors businessmen who formed the mainstay of his rule. Things are likely to take a long time to change in the direction of a fair balance of employee-employer interests.     

It may sound funny to compare a Filipino maid in the States with Egyptian journalists in Cairo, but the problem is that Ballestros in the States is in a better position than a journalist in Cairo when it comes to litigation against a US based company in Egypt.

Reuters, like other corrupt businesses in the circle of Mubarak and family, found it convenient to shed some of its essential responsibilities not only toward the editors, but also toward the State and society in flagrant violation of the law. Reuters should have deducted a certain percentage of the salaries of its employees as an income tax to be relayed to the tax authorities. But instead, it simply used to give them small untaxed salaries disregarding State coffers share because the guys have no formal existence or documents.   

The investigation into tax avoidance is not in itself enough. There must be a full investigation into the full details of enslaving people by a major Western multinational corporation. Media Advocacy and Human Rights Organizations have to be outspoken on such cases on a par with the attention they devote to journalists persecuted or imprisoned. 

It’s almost incredible to me that my case against Reuters, credited to be the one that transformed the Cairo Office, was the first to be brought against the Company. It is one of the most bizarre stories in the labor world.

I was forced to submit my resignation in 22 February 2010 after 6 years and 11 months - despite the absence of a contract - simply because I demanded an end to corruption and corrupt practices. I asked the Company twice to conduct an investigation into the circumstances of my forced resignation, but all was in vain. 

When I began to sue the Company everything was suddenly transformed, which means simply that Thomsonreuters was heavily dependent on the generosity - or rather the corruption - of their hosts on one side and the subdued reaction of their victims on the other.

However, more than ten years of exploitation and tax avoidance can hardly be forgiven.

http://tornado75.blogspot.com/2012/02/blog-post_21.html