Labor groups ask SC to lift TRO on P85 Metro Manila minimum wage hike

The Kamanggagawa Party-list and the Nagkaisa Labor Coalition on Wednesday 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.

Atty. Sonny Matula, the president of the Federation of Free Workers and chairman of the Nagkaisa coalition, said the petition before the High Tribunal does not mean that the labor groups are abandoning their pending motions and interventions before the regional trial courts of Pasig and Navotas.

"But one fundamental question now deserves one authoritative answer. May an RTC entertain a direct challenge and restrain a wage order when Article 124 of the Labor Code specifically provides an appeal to the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NSPC)?" Matula said.

“We are not running away from the RTCs—we are appearing before them. But workers should not have to litigate the same jurisdictional question, courtroom by courtroom, while their wage increase remains frozen," he added.

"The urgency is not merely about avoiding inconsistent rulings or a 'courthouse lottery.' There is a human clock running, " Matula said.

Kamanggagawa Party-list Representative 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," Fernando said in Filipino.

In an eight-page order issued on July 30, Presiding Judge Marie Joyce Manongsong granted the prayer of petitioners Readycon Trading and Construction Corp. and R-II Builders, Inc. for a TRO on the implementation of NCR Wage Order No. 27, "pending the resolution of the petition for declaratory relief."

The court enjoined the respondents, the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board-National Capital Region and the National Wages and Productivity Commission, from implementing the wage hike until August 13.

The P85 daily wage increase was to be implemented in two tranches, with the first P60 increase supposedly taking effect on July 25 and the remaining P25 taking effect in January 2027.

Citing the Philippine Labor Code, Fernando said no court can issue a temporary, preliminary, or permanent injunction or TRO against any wage order released by regional wage boards.

"We want the TRO to be lifted, and we will exhaust all legal means to ensure that we return the wage increase that was taken away from our workers," Fernando said. –NB, GMA News