Labor groups ask SC to act on petition vs. suspension of NCR wage hike

Several labor groups have asked the Supreme Court (SC) to urgently act on an earlier petition asking it to junk a temporary restraining order (TRO) on the implementation of the P85 minimum wage increase in Metro Manila, noting that a lower court has ordered an extension of the suspension.

In a 20-page manifestation, labor groups asked the court to note that the Pasig Regional Trial Court (RTC) ordered a preliminary injunction on the implementation of the wage hike after petitioners posted a P10 billion bond.

The preliminary injunction was issued the day that the TRO expired.

“A minimum wage worker deprived of P60 today may forego food, transportation, medicine, utilities, or school expenses today,” the petitioners said.

“Even if an amount can later be computed and paid, the missed meal, untreated need, lost trip, or foregone daily consumption cannot literally be restored to the day it was needed,” they added.

The petitioners argued that the order issuing the injunction treats possible employment consequences as irreversible and assumes that the workers’ corresponding injury can be adequately addressed through a monetary bond.

“The bond, therefore, cannot cure the antecedent jurisdictional objection, nor can it transform an otherwise prohibited or unauthorized injunction into a valid one. Security answers damages; it does not create jurisdiction,” it said.

According to the petitioners, the order also did not diminish the urgency of their earlier petition.

“Petitioners respectfully maintain that the antecedent question is not merely whether the requisites of Rule 58 were adequately demonstrated,” it said.

“The antecedent question is whether the RTC had jurisdiction and legal authority to employ Rule 58 in the first place against a wage order,” it added.

Last week, the Kamanggagawa Party-list and the Nagkaisa Labor Coalition filed a petition to junk the TRO against the wage hike.

The petitioners again asked the SC to give due course to the petition and to annul and set aside the assailed TRO and writ of preliminary injunction.

They also asked the SC to prohibit trial courts from continuing to exercise jurisdiction over direct challenges and applications for injunctive restraint against the order. —LDF, GMA News