Pasig RTC extends suspension of ₱85 minimum wage hike in NCR; requires ₱10B bond

The Pasig Regional Trial Court has ordered a preliminary injunction on the implementation of the ₱85 minimum wage increase in Metro Manila, upon the posting of a ₱10 billion bond.

In her order, Presiding Judge Marie Joyce P. Manongsong said the court saw that it is "in the best interest of all stakeholders that the assailed wage order be temporarily put on pause."

The injunction came out on the day the temporary restraining order expired in the petition filed by Readycon Trading and Construction, Corp., and R-II Builders, Inc., against the ₱85 minimum wage hike ordered by the wage board in the National Capital Region.

A preliminary injunction is an order requiring a party or a court, agency, or a person to refrain from a particular act or acts before the court rules on the matter.

In its order, the court mentioned the job terminations that might result from the implementation of the minimum wage increase.

"Losing one's employment is graver and more irreversible than the temporary inability to receive additional wages," the order read.

"This, along with the other grim consequences discussed above, is precisely the reason why this court deems that momentarily enjoining the implementation of the assailed wage order is not only legal but also just,” it added.

As regards the ₱10 billion bond, the court said, "Consistent with this court's acknowledgment of the possible damage or burdens accruing to the millions of workers across the region on account of this injunctive order, the court deems that a ten-billion-peso bond (PhP10,000,000,000.00) suffices as an injunction bond."

GMA News Online has reached out to the Department of Labor and Employment for comment on the matter.

Atty. Sonny Matula, president of the Federation of Free Workers, said the Supreme Court’s Civil Procedure Benchbook recognized that the general injunctive powers under Rule 58 are subject to ‘Statutory Prohibitions against the Issuance of a Writ of Preliminary Injunction,’ expressly identifying labor legislation among them.

"Rule 58 therefore cannot be read in isolation from the special statutory limitations Congress imposed upon judicial interference with the specialized labor-law machinery," Matula said.

He said the benchbook of the SC said, “No writ may be issued by the Regional Trial Court against quasi-judicial bodies of equal rank…”

Matula said the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board, which set the minimum wage hike, in equal in rank with the regional trial court.

On Wednesday, the Kamanggagawa Party-list and the Nagkaisa Labor Coalition filed a petition urging the Supreme Court to junk the temporary restraining order (TRO) on the implementation of the P85 minimum wage increase in Metro Manila.

Kamanggagawa party-list Rep. Eli San Fernando said that because of the TRO issued by the Pasig Regional Trial Court Branch 152, minimum wage earners lose P66 million every day.

"Every day, workers lose P66 million. Over the span of the implementation of the TRO, workers lost P1 billion of their salary," San Fernando said in Filipino. –NB, GMA News