Labor groups run to SC: Wage hike TRO is ‘justice in reverse’
A party list lawmaker and eight labor groups on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to nullify the orders issued by the Pasig City Regional Trial Court (RTC) suspending the P85 increase in the minimum wage for Metro Manila workers.
“The Supreme Court, as the final bulwark of justice in our country, must indubitably step in and correct this ignominy that is threatening to erode the trust of the public in our wage-fixing system,” the petitioners said.
On July 24, Judge Achilles Balauitan of Pasig RTC Branch 154 issued a status quo order against National Capital Region Wage Order No. 27 which granted the increase.
This was after two construction companies sought judicial relief against the wage hike, which was supposed to take effect on July 25 with the grant of P65 as first tranche of the raise.
Six days later, Judge Marie Joyce Manongsong of Pasig RTC Branch 152 issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the increase.
The petitioners denounced the two successive rulings as “social justice in reverse” for the 1.1 million minimum wage earners in Metro Manila who were expected to benefit.
“Those who have less are made to wait for (the) P60 needed today… as their ATMs are already pledged to loan sharks and lending institutions with less than satisfactory debt collection practices, while those who have more get to keep the P60 in the meantime,” said the petitioners led by Kamanggagawa Rep. Eli San Fernando.
The Pasig RTC orders stemmed from the petitions filed by Readycon Trading and Construction Corp. and R-II Builders Inc.
Days later, the Alliance of Philippine Fishing Federations Inc., a Navotas City-based organization representing fishing companies, filed a similar pleading.
Labor Secretary Francis Tolentino earlier hailed the “historic” increase as the highest daily raise granted in the private sector so far.
But business groups warned that micro, small and medium enterprises would face “additional cost pressures that could affect hiring, expansion, and pricing decisions.”
‘No authority’
In their 39-page petition, the labor groups asked the high tribunal to issue an order directing lower courts to immediately dismiss any petition against wage orders.
They invoked Article 126 of the Labor Code, which prohibits courts from issuing TROs or similar injunctions on the matter.
Lower courts, they said, lacked the legal authority to intervene in the decisions of the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board and similar orders from the National Wages and Productivity Commission.
“The respondent lower courts and judges have arrogated upon themselves the settlement of an issue beyond their mandates. They neither have the authority nor the necessary knowledge, expertise and experience to ascertain the propriety and wisdom of wage orders,” they said. —WITH A REPORT FROM FRANCES AGBAYANI, INQUIRER intern
