Nonregular workers coop contributes over P200 million
As publicized in The Manila Times
June 3-9, 2007

The shifting economic condition witnessed the emergence of multi-purpose cooperatives of self-employed and nonregular workers (and professionals) in the Philippine business setting. One prime example is Asiapro Cooperative which pioneered the organization of non-regular workers in the Philippines. It is a multi-purpose cooperative that takes care of assigning its members in service engagements with cooperating companies. In this setup, members enjoy the status of a self-employed worker becoming co-owners of the cooperative and engaging g in contractual assignments with the cooperative serving as the contracting party.

Earnings of members for their work contribution to the cooperative are at par if not better than their counterparts in the market. Unlike typical contractual workers, members enjoy standard worker benefits, as well as additional benefits. As co-owners of the enterprise, they have the opportunity to share whatever success the cooperative will reap in the future such as in terms of dividends and surplus sharing. Members are able to enjoy social benefits that are usually granted to regular workers because like their regular counterparts, they are also able to remit to the government.
Countries and their functional equivalent carry out many functions through the use of funds provided by remittances. Some of these include expenditures on the enforcement of law and public order, protection of property, economic infrastructure, public works, social engineering, and the operation of the government itself. These may also fund welfare and public services, which may include education systems, health care systems, pensions for the elderly, unemployment benefits, and public transportation.

Contributions for social benefits made by the cooperative members can be used to provide assistance to the majority of the population. A prime example of leading worker cooperatives bonding together to help in this area is the Philippine Association of Self-Employed Workers Cooperatives (Co-opWorks!) Inc.

There are nine primary cooperative members under Co-opWorks! These are the Alternative Network Resource Cooperative, Asiapro Multi-Purpose Cooperative, Fourth Dimension Multi-Purpose Cooperative, Globalpro Multi-Purpose Cooperative, Jobpro Multi-Purpose Cooperative, People Serve Multi-Purpose Cooperative, Serbiz Multi-Purpose Cooperative, Tekton Entre-Workers Cooperative and the Yearnings Outsourcing Multi-Purpose Cooperative.
For 2006, the group has collectively contributed a total of P139 million for the Social Security System, P32 million for PhilHealth and P39 million for Pag-IBIG. All in all, this amounts to P211 million in remittances made for 2006 alone. This is but a glimpse at the teeming potential of the non-regular worker’s possible contribution to the economy. The figures account for only a total of 24,131 coop members. Of the entire workforce of 35 million, an estimate of around 8-10 million belongs to the non-regular or informal sector.

Ultimately, the objective of these workers cooperatives is to provide better working opportunities for the nonregular sector of the nation’s labor force. The emergence of this empowered sector is expected in turn to aid other sectors of society such as labor, government institutions, industries, communities, and even the cooperative movement.