International Conformity: Money Worship

I remember having a conversation once where I was told, “The world has a new common religion and it is the worship of money”. At the time, I pondered the generalization for a few moments and agreed with the sentiment without really thinking it through in depth.

Today, after coming across this article in 7Days, I’m forced to rethink that statement. The article itself highlights a UK based company located in the UAE, where 120 white-collar employees have taken to striking, claiming their employer withholds their passports (which is against the UAE law), forces them to work longer than the legal 8-hour-work-day shifts, and deducts multiple days worth in cash from their salaries for failing to meet daily sales targets or taking a single day sick leave. I am not all too familiar with labor law in the UK, but I’m pretty sure should this company be located in its own country, it would not consider the possibilities of such ‘motivational’ standards, as it’d be considered illegal.

A few years back, I was offered a job as an administrative assistant, in a Canadian based government company that is tied tightly to the Canadian consulate in Bur Dubai where it’s located in the very next office of the same building. I turned down the job because the package they offered me, if I recall it correctly, was 1500Dhs ($543.387 CAD at that time) per month, for a 5 ½ day working week.

On Canada’s Ministry of Labor site, you’ll find that minimum wages as of February 2004 in Ontario (as wages vary slightly from province to province), started from $6.60 CAD an hour, reaching up to $71.50 CAD an hour, depending on the industry.

Applying a little math to the salary I was offered by dividing the monthly amount by an estimated four weeks and then the weekly amount by the 44 hour work week expected of me, shows that I was being offered exactly 8.52Dhs an hour, which worked out to approximately $3.086 CAD. Exchange rate calculations are thanks to ONADA.com.

This is less than half of what the minimum wage amount was in the lowest paid industry in Canada at that time. In the off chance that my memory is playing tricks on me about the exact package they offered, I can assure you that there was no way the package was double the amount I have specified here and no less than a 5 ½ day work week. I clearly remember how horrified my entire family was at the hypocrisy the Canadian government showed us, once again.

Examples of Western or European based companies operating in the UAE that abandon the labor laws of their own countries for the more profitable labor laws in the UAE are widespread; McDonalds, Pepsi, Starbucks are just a few major examples where average employees are paid far less than they would be should they be working in the same company but out of the company’s homeland instead of here.

The logic behind this is understandable; the aim of any company is to minimize its costs while increasing profit. But logic or the fact that no local laws are being broken does not mean these policies are in any way moralistic, humanitarian based, nor do the managers of such companies show any sort of integrity or ethics. McDonalds for example, still uses Styrofoam boxes for their sandwiches in the UAE, though the overwhelming evidence of the detrimental effects Styrofoam has on the environment meant a ban on the same in Canada, years ago. Any company, from any country will go as far as it possibly legally (and often times illegally) can, to increase their profits. Knowing that these attributes have little to do with any company’s sole mission, it’s very hard to criticize.

But what happens when these companies are owned by foreign governments? 7Days recently ran this article, highlighting the plight of an Indian Embassy employee who feels he’s been short changed by approximately 70,000Dhs ($18,995 USD), in receiving his end-of-service dues because the Embassy has chosen to function under the Indian Ministry of External Affairs guidelines instead of local labor law.

A quotation from the same article teaches us that most Embassies follow UAE’s labor law, which explains my job offer with the Canadian government’s office.

“But following the laws of the home nation is not the practice of many other nations’ embassies, which follow UAE labour law. An official from the Pakistani embassy told 7DAYS that UAE labour laws are applicable to those employees who are locally recruited, as Pillai was.”

The point? Corporations based in ‘civilized’ countries, and even the very governments of such countries will gladly point a sticky finger at the UAE, while simultaneously are more than happy to take advantage of the very laws (or lack there of) they ridicule, so long as they can save or make a few extra bucks.

Looks to me like we all have a lot more in common than most of you would like to admit; hypocrisy and money worship are at the first two things that come to mind.

~*~

On a related note, I once wrote about the Asian workforce in the UAE and their comparison to ‘slavery’ that is so often uttered by narrow-minded critics near and far. There I asked what remittances amounts were like, being sent back to these countries from the UAE. No one dared respond; today, I found my answer while researching post, and I can guess why.

Figures in the UAE state that expatriate remittances toped 51.5 billion dirhams (approximately $13.98 billion USD) last year, of which remittances to Asia accounts for 64% of the total. Asian expatriate workers in the UAE, last year alone strengthened their own economies by $8.94 billion US dollars. That’s a hell of a lot of money being sent from a country that so ’horrendously abuses it’s laborers who come here by force as the economic conditions in their own country are so impoverish they’ve no other choice. Perhaps the UAE is actually doing far more good for the future of Asians and their countries than we care to admit or see?