RIYADH, 30 July 2006 — A foreign national here says he was sacked from his job as an executive assistant at a global pharmaceutical company for blowing the whistle on his supervisor and reporting other irregularities by local employees.
Firat Gumus, a Turkish national, was working at the Riyadh headquarters of a well-known pharmaceutical company for a little over a year when he was discharged on Aug. 1, 2002. Since then, he says the company has returned neither his passport nor his iqama, leaving him with no identification save for an expired driver’s license.
Arab News tried to speak to the general manager of the company only to be met with a statement that it was “the policy of the company not to discuss employees’ matters with the press.”
Gumus says his troubles began when his manager was asking for personal favors, including rides to and from the airport and home-buying trips around the capital.
The general manager of the office began to notice that Gumus was regularly absent on these errands. When Gumus explained what he was doing, his manager reprimanded him and gave him formal first warning. In the letter, the manager said Gumus was abusing cigarette breaks and taking regular unannounced leaves.
“What was I supposed to tell the general manager when he asked me about my absence? That I was out drinking coffee?” he said.
Later, Gumus said he also noticed that employees were committing fraud by inflating costs and pocketing the difference, sometimes by forging documents related to sales commissions.
“Almost every purchase was being made intentionally at a higher price to justify kickbacks,” he said, adding that some business travelers at the company would downgrade their executive-class tickets to coach and keep the difference. “The administration, sales and marketing and accounts department were working as a team doing such corrupt business practices.”
When Gumus’ wife was in her ninth month of pregnancy, he requested time off and his annual home-ticket in order to go to Turkey and return with his mother for the birth. The permission was granted initially, but his manager also requested that Gumus sign several blank sheets of paper. When the employee refused, his manager threatened to arrange for his deportation from the Kingdom. Gumus claims that his manager offered not to follow through on his threat if he signed the papers and promised to keep his mouth shut about the alleged fraudulent practices going on at the company. Gumus agreed to do so in order to get the ticket.
Gumus learned shortly after he returned from Turkey and re-submitted his passport to his employer that he had been fired. The end-of-service documents had what he claimed to be his signature that had been digitally scanned and inserted on the papers. The company also lodged a missing person report with the Passports Department, claiming that he ran away, and never gave back his iqama.
Two days later, Gumus says the manager called him and asked for SR40,000 in return for the “No Objection Certificate” that would allow him to take another job in the Kingdom. Gumus said he paid the money by borrowing from friends, but the manager then demanded another SR7,000. He paid that money, too, and said he never asked for receipts.
Gumus said he never received the release papers and has complained to higher-ups at the company to no avail. He says he has written e-mails and sent faxes to the chief executive of the company as well as the company’s vice president for Latin America and the Middle East. “As of this date, I have received no replies from them,” he said.
Gumus said he unsuccessfully pursued his case through the Labor Court. He said that the paperwork filed by his former employer was forged to appear like another company sponsored him. “I was shocked,” said Gumus. “I told them that I did not know of such a company and asked for the paper they had of my employer. I was told that my previous sponsor was not them.”
Four years after being fired, Gumus has still been unable to even get back his passport. Today he says he makes ends meet only by the grace of friends who have helped him out. He says his landlord has not been so kind, and has threatened to evict the family from their home. “I now work in a shop that is owned by one of my friends,” he said. “I get paid SR50 a day. I have a wife and two children who need to be fed.”
