Punitive measures against Al-Bawaba News leadership as syndicate negotiations falter

After negotiations on implementing the minimum wage reached a dead end, the Journalists Syndicate referred Al-Bawaba News’ founder Abdel Rahim Ali and his daughter, Editor-In-Chief Dalia Abdel Rahim, to several investigations, the syndicate announced on Sunday after its board of directors meeting. 

Journalists began an open strike at the newspaper’s headquarters on November 17 to demand that the company implement minimum wage and improve working conditions. Workers speaking to Mada Masr previously said that their monthly wages are capped at a maximum of LE2,000, a fraction of the legal minimum.

In response, the newspaper’s management rejected the journalists’ demands due to what it said were the financial difficulties it was facing, before announcing its intention to liquidate the company.

In its statement, the syndicate announced that its board of directors unanimously agreed to refer Ali and his daughter to investigation due to the police report they filed against seven of the striking employees and two of the syndicate's council “without obtaining a litigation permission, in addition to inciting against colleagues who resorted to their syndicate in protest of the law not being enforced.” 

Journalists Syndicate chair Khaled al-Balshy announced last week that the police report was filed by the company’s management against the seven protestors, accusing them of “protesting without a license.” 

Balshy added at the time that the newspaper's management also reported members of the syndicate’s council Eman Ouf and Mahmoud Kamel to the police for expressing solidarity with the company’s protestors. 

In its statement, the syndicate added that the memorandum submitted by more than 130 journalists against Ali and Abdel Rahim was referred to investigation due to their refusal to implement the minimum wage and obstructing the payment of salaries to the protestors. 

The syndicate council also referred both the founder and editor-in-chief to internal syndicate investigations “due to their responsibility for dismissing the journalists and failing to enforce the minimum wage.” 

A memorandum requesting the removal of Ali and his other daughter Shahenda’s membership from the syndicate was referred to the registration committee "to take the necessary measures regarding the accusations contained therein of violating the registration conditions."

The statement added that the syndicate council also unanimously agreed to refer Ali to the registration committee to take the necessary measures in regards to an article he published — which the statement said included an admission on his part of violating the union’s law and its membership registration requirements.

Ouf explained to Mada Masr that in one of his articles, Ali stated that he owns 20 percent of the company’s assets, which she said is a violation of Article 5 of the syndicate’s founding law that requires that a member be a journalist who is “a professional who does not own a newspaper or news agency, nor is a partner in its ownership, or a shareholder in its capital.”

Aside from its decisions related to Ali’s family, the syndicate’s council also approved the referral of journalists Ahmed and Mohamed Yehia al-Diasty – sons of Al-Bawaba’s legal counsel — to the investigation.

Their referral, as per the statement, comes due to the memorandum submitted by the syndicate's representative and head of the settlements committee, Abdel Raouf Khalifa, regarding the complaint filed against them. 

Ouf explained that the referral of the Diasty brothers to investigation came after more than 30 journalists filed a complaint against them regarding verbal abuse of the protesting journalists. 

In addition to the announced internal investigations, the syndicate filed a lawsuit against the company’s management to stop the liquidation process and require it to pay the minimum wage, according to the statement.

It added that Balshy got in contact with the Labor Ministry, the Giza Labor Directorate and the Supreme Council for Media Regulation to take the necessary measures to achieve the striking journalists’ demands.

Earlier this month, the company’s management submitted a request to the Labor Ministry to support the salaries of its journalists through the Workers’ Emergency Aid Fund before Balshy announced that the company delayed the submission of the required documents for the request it had itself filed.

Balshy’s claim was later denied by the company’s legal advisor, who described the syndicate head’s statements as “misleading information.”

Mada Masr contacted the Giza Labor Directorate’s deputy director, Karim Aboul Seoud, to inquire about the request the company sent to the Labor Ministry, though he refused to comment, saying that “this is information I cannot disclose.”

Mada Masr reached out to the Al-Bawaba News editor-in-chief and its legal counsel to comment on the syndicate’s decisions, but received no response until the time of publication.

Weeks before the strike in November, 70 journalists at Al-Bawaba News sent an official memorandum to the Journalists Syndicate outlining their demands. They also sent complaints about their wages to the prime minister's office and the Labor Ministry, which granted management a 10-day deadline to implement minimum wage. When no action was taken, the journalists began their sit-in. 

The Journalists Syndicate had referred Ali, in his capacity as chair of the newspaper’s board, and Abdel Rahim, as editor-in-chief, to internal investigation by the syndicate almost two years ago in relation to the “arbitrary dismissal of several journalists and salary reductions.” The syndicate had halted the registration of Al-Bawaba News journalists at the same time.