MANILA, Philippines — More than 200 workers led by Kamanggagawa Partylist Rep. Elijah “Eli” San Fernando marched to the Pasig City Regional Trial Court (RTC) on Monday to seek the lifting of the temporary restraining order (TRO) that halted the implementation of Metro Manila’s P85 daily minimum wage increase.
The workers, together with the NAGKAISA! Labor Coalition, filed a 26-page Urgent Motion for Leave to Intervene before Pasig RTC Branch 152, asking the court to dissolve the TRO and allow the wage increase under NCR Wage Order No. 27 to take effect.
“If we do not crush this TRO right here and right now, we are opening the floodgates to a dangerous precedent,” San Fernando said.
San Fernando warned that allowing the TRO to remain could encourage businesses in other regions to seek similar court orders every time a regional wage board approves a wage increase, weakening the country’s wage-setting system.
The motion argued that the petitioners bypassed the administrative remedies under the Labor Code by going directly to court instead of first appealing before the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC), citing Supreme Court jurisprudence requiring parties to exhaust administrative remedies.
Labor groups also maintained that regular trial courts have no jurisdiction over wage fixing or injunctions against regional wage boards under Articles 123 and 126 of the Labor Code, adding that the TRO effectively withholds the P85 increase from more than a million minimum wage earners in the National Capital Region.
“DOLE must assert its primary jurisdiction and enforce NCR Wage Order No. 27 immediately,” San Fernando said, urging the Department of Labor and Employment and the NWPC to defend the wage order and stop conceding to what he described as an illegal court order.
