DAVAO CITY – A labor group rallied in front of the office of the biggest manpower cooperative in the country, Asiapro in Pasig City Wednesday morning.
On its website, Asiapro claims to be the country’s first and largest worker cooperative “that offers flexible, cost-effective, and socially responsible solutions to your service contracting and outsourcing needs.”
But labor coalition Nagkaisa, allege that “Asiapro is a multibillion racket that needs to be exposed,” adding that manpower agencies and cooperatives performs labor-only contracting which is “anti-labor”.
“Labor contractualization is a capitalist tool to depress workers’ wages and benefits and prevent their unionization. The purpose of manpower agencies and cooperatives are to provide this tool to anti-labor employers,” said Nagkaisa in a statement.
Nagkaisa urged the government to comply with the constitutional mandate of giving workers full protection “and that includes protection from unscrupulous labor contractors.”
The group has already conducted a comprehensive research on the operation of Asiapro last year. On the other hand Asiapro filed libel cases against some leaders of Nagkaisa in retaliation for the protest action organized by the group also last year.
