BAGUIO Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) workers are calling for the release of a colleague in Bacolod.
In a statement, the BPO Industry Employees Network (Bien) called for the release of Anne Krueger, an organizer in Bacolod City who is among the labor, peasant, women and other activists who were arrested en masse in Negros on October 31.
"We have known Ms. Krueger for years and she is not a member of the New People's Army or NPA. She is an effective Bien coordinator, working among BPO employees who stand up for their rights to decent pay, secure employment status, and a healthy and safe workplace. She is a loving mother of six young kids, aside from being a community journalist for the newly-formed alternative media outfit Paghimutad," Bien said.
Bien added that Krueger is known to countless BPO employees.
"She is a dedicated paralegal and organizer. She has accompanied numerous BPO workers in filing labor cases before the labor department and its agencies. She is a go-to person in Bacolod for BPO workers whenever they have grievances in their workplace. She helps BPO employees understand their rights and realize collective power thru organizing, but prior to these, Ms. Krueger was a student of Saint Louis University and worked as a call center agent here in Baguio City," the statement added.
Bien also said Kruger's inclusion in the mass arrest could only bolster the claims of those arrested that the evidence being used against them were all planted.
"Anybody who has observed the country's war on drugs will have no doubt that the country's authorities are capable of such acts once they decide to go after a person," it added.
Bien is deeply alarmed by accusations thrown last November 2 by Major General Antonio Parlade Jr., head of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) ,in a release in the Philippine News Agency.
Parlade claimed that Krueger is a "captured [Communist Party of the Philippines]-NPA personality" and that Bien is an "extension of CPP-front [Kilusang Mayo Uno, May First Movement] in the thriving BPO labor sector."
Bien is an independent organization of BPO employees seeking to advance the rights of employees who contribute to the government's tax collection efforts.
"We have campaigned for longer periods of restroom breaks for call center workers. We have also been campaigning for the removal of floating while hiring, and for the protection of occupational health and safety of BPO workers. And for many years, we have been in the forefront of a campaign to bring positive changes in legislation for added protection for BPO workers' rights and welfare," Bien added.
Bien was formed in the city to advocate for rights of BPO industry employees.