WORLD DAY OF DECENT WORK | Workers picket manning agency for labor lawviolations

Rally outside the Asiapro office in Pasig City, 7 October 2014. PHOTO COURTESY OF NAGKAISA

MANILA - To mark the World Day of Decent Work today, members of labor coalition Nagkaisa (United) on Tuesday picketed the Asiapro main office in Barangay Kapitolyo, Pasig City to condemn the “pseudo” manning agency for gross violations of workers’ rights.

In a statement, the coalition said that despite its name, Asiapro is not a multi-purpose cooperative.

“Asiapro is a grand structure of deceit and an organized syndicate with a multi-billion peso profiteering from the blood and sweat of hapless Filipino workers,” Nagkaisa said.

“The people running Asiapro are with pedigree, deeply-experienced and widely networked to camouflage and further entrench their labor-only-contracting fleecing operation. They are not just modern day labor slavery drivers, they are also rapacious and brutal not only for not giving the right wages and benefits for is workers but for skirting the laws and statutes by not paying millions of pesos of taxes that a responsible manning agency does to government,” it added without identifying the people behind Asiapro.

The coalition said it would try to uncover the Asiapro masterminds so that they can be held accountable “for their abuse and injustice committed against thousands of its workers and their families.”

- InterAksyon.com The online news portal of TV5

Nagkaisa labor coalition declares war against “King of labor-only-contracting Asiapro” in today’s World Day of Decent Work

AROUND 200 members of labor coalition Nagkaisa picketed the Asiapro main office in Barangay Kapitolyo in Pasig City this morning to condemn the pseudo-manning agency for its gross violations of workers’ rights to mark the World Day of Decent Work observed worldwide today.

Below is the Nagkaisa labor coalition statement issued today:

“We, the Nagkaisa! (United!), join arms in condemning in highest and strongest terms the illegal practice being perpetrated by the Asiapro Multi-purpose Cooperative against thousands of vulnerable Filipino workers in its employ as we commemorate today the World Day of Decent Work along with other labor unions and progressive labor groups around the world.

We are enraged by Asiapro’s unfettered and multiple grave violations of international conventions on decent jobs and serious abuse of Philippine labor statutes that upholds the rights and interests of Filipino workers.
Behind its mask and by its pretense as a multi-purpose cooperative, Asiapro is a grand structure of deceit and an organized syndicate with a multi-billion peso profiteering from the blood and sweat of hapless Filipino workers.

The people running Asiapro are with pedigree, deeply-experienced and widely networked to camouflaged and further entrenched their labor-only-contracting fleecing operation. They are not just modern day labor slavery drivers, they are also rapacious and brutal not only for not giving the right wages and benefits for is workers but for skirting the laws and statutes by not paying millions of pesos of taxes that a responsible manning agency does to government.

As we join fellow workers in fighting for decent work, the Nagkaisa labor coalition today vows to make life difficult for Asiapro and promises to make its greedy high people running the organization be brought to justice.

In observance of the World Day of Decent Work, Nagkaisa today swears to uncover the Asiapro masterminds and make sure they will be made to account including all of the conspirators of the syndicate to pay for their abuse and injustice they have committed against thousands of its workers and their families.”

Mabuhay ang Nagkaisa!
Long live Nagkaisa!
Together, let us bring Asiapro to justice!

DoJ affirms bill on unemployment benefits

THE DEPARTMENT of Justice (DoJ) has backed a House bill seeking to expand benefits under the Social Security System (SSS) for employees separated from the service.

House Bill No. 4668 -- “An Act Expanding The Benefits of the Social Security System So As To Provide for the Unemployment Benefits Thereby Amending For This Purpose Republic Act No. 8282, as Amended, Otherwise Known as the Social Security Law of 1997” -- is authored by Party-list Rep. Raymond Democrito C. Mendoza (Trade Union Congress of the Philippines).

In a legal opinion to North Cotabato Rep. Jesus N. Sacdalan (1st district), chairman of the House committee on government enterprises and privatization, Justice Secretary Leila M. de Lima said her department “recognizes the importance of this bill and we express our support thereto.”

Ms. de Lima also emphasized in her opinion that SSS funds should be sufficient to fulfill its obligation to its members.

The bill seeks to provide unemployment benefits in the form of monthly cash payments to an employee who is terminated, or “involuntarily unemployed” as the bill says. The said benefits are equivalent to the employee’s minimum wage.

“It is imperative upon the state to ensure that our work force does not only have meaningful and satisfying jobs, but can also address employment or income security during unfortunate times when they lose their jobs through no fault of their own,” Mr. Mendoza said.

Ms. de Lima said the objective of the proposed bill -- to give temporary economic support to employees who were separated from their employment while looking for new opportunities to work -- “appears to be the same intention” in providing workers with separation pay under the Labor Code. -- Reden D. Madrid Bworldonline

NAGKAISA pickets Chinese embassy; backs HK’s general strike, prodemocracy protests

NAGKAISA members rallied today in front of the Chinese embassy’s consular section in Makati City to air their support to the general strike of Hong Kong’s trade unions and the week-old massive pro-democracy protests rocking this prosperous semiautonomous city of China.

Part of the worldwide network backing the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement, the NAGKAISA leaders blasted China for its “dogmatic refusal” to respect the Hong Kong citizens’ right to universal suffrage or the right to vote and be voted, as well as its role in the violent attempt to disperse the protesters last Sunday.

Rally leaders said that the uncalled-for police assault using tear gas and pepper spray against a peaceful protest, where at least 59 were injured and 89 arrested, has in fact backfired on the authorities as it prompted more people to join the demonstrations – initially led by the Hong Kong Federation of Students – who now swelled to tens of thousands under the banner of the broad Occupy Central movement.

The Sept. 28 dispersal also prodded the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) to call for a general strike on Oct. 1 coinciding with the 65th founding anniversary of the People’s Republic of China.

Heeding HKCTU’s call were trade union members from the ranks of teachers, dockers, beverage employees and from other industries as this Hong Kong’s largest labor center stated that “to defend democracy and justice, (the workers) cannot let the students fight the suppression alone.”

NAGKAISA also lauded HKCTU as actually the “backbone of the multisectoral democracy movement in Hong Kong” even before the former British colonial ruler handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997.

NAGKAISA activists handed the consular office a letter* urging the Chinese and Hong Kong authorities “to respect the right of the Hong Kong protesters to peaceably assemble and to raise their grievances and democratic demands, and to refrain from resorting to violent and other retaliatory measures.”

They also warned that “ruthless repression à la Tiananmen Square in 1989 will have tremendous global repercussions to China and will no longer be tolerated and ignored by the international community.”

Included in the letter was the demand of the Hong Kong protesters for Leung Chun-ying to step down as the city’s chief executive “for his dismal leadership and for his role in the violent suppression of dissent and prodemocracy protests.”

The protesters revealed that part of the deal in the 1997 handover was that Hong Kong citizens would be allowed to vote for their leader – called chief executive – in 2017; but China’s government reneged on its promise when it declared last August that only those vetted by Beijing would be allowed to become “candidates” in the election.

“It would be another form of a sham ‘election’ like the current system where the chief executive is ‘elected’ by a 1,200-person ‘committee’ filled with Beijing sycophants and lackeys, thus, both are downright undemocratic and elitist,” NAGKAISA said in its letter.

NAGKAISA reiterated that universal suffrage and other basic democratic rights are not incompatible with an autonomous or Special Administrative Region (SAR) setup like in Hong Kong.

“They will even bolster the ‘one country, two systems’ model for the post-British Hong Kong that China supposedly adheres to, and will eventually benefit Hong Kong and mainland China, as well as the rest of the world,” NAGKAISA leaders declared.

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3 October 2014

*HIS EXCELLENCY ZHAO JIANHUA
Ambassador to the Philippines
Embassy of the People’s Republic of China
Makati City

Dear Mr. Ambassador:

We represent the general membership and leadership of NAGKAISA, the broadest labor coalition comprising 80% of all the organized workers in the country.

We are one with the people of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU), Hong Kong’s top independent trade union center even before the territory’s handover from the UK to China.

Mr. Ambassador, allow us to freely express NAGKAISA’s utmost concern in the current social upheavals in Hong Kong, China’s foremost special administrative area. We respectfully urge the Chinese government as well as the Hong Kong authorities to respect the right of the protesters – who include our colleagues from the HKCTU and other Hong Kong-based NGOs – to peaceably assemble and to raise their grievances and democratic demands.

We condemn the violent measures taken by the Hong Kong Authority in its attempt to break the protest last Sunday. Using brute force against unarmed and peaceful protesters will have tremendous repercussions to Hong Kong – and China – and definitely will not be tolerated and ignored by the international community.

In particular, NAGKAISA wishes to present the following demands to the Chinese government and the Hong Kong administrators, through the Embassy of China here in Manila:

(1) End to the crackdown against peaceful assemblies and protest actions.

(2) Immediately release all arrested protesters and guarantee their basic human rights.

(3) Implement universal suffrage or the right to vote of Hong Kong citizens, including fielding and selecting their own chosen candidates in the election for Hong Kong leaders.

(4) Resignation of Chief Executive CY Leung for him to take responsibility for the violent and uncalled-for dispersal of student activists and other protesters last Sept. 28.

In the spirit of free and responsible exchange of even opposing ideas, thank you for giving us this opportunity.

Sincerely,

NAGKAISA Convenors