Labor groups on Monday renewed calls to lift the temporary restraining order (TRO) suspending the P85 daily minimum wage increase in Metro Manila, saying it has delayed the wage adjustment for millions of minimum wage earners.
In separate statements, the NAGKAISA! Labor Coalition, the Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa (SENTRO), and Anakpawis Party-list urged the Pasig Regional Trial Court to allow NCR Wage Order No. 27 to take effect while also calling for longer-term reforms to the country’s wage-setting system.
NAGKAISA! welcomed the Office of the Solicitor General’s (OSG) move to seek the immediate lifting of the TRO, while maintaining that the Pasig court has no jurisdiction over the petition and that challenges to the wage order should have first been brought before the National Wages and Productivity Commission.
The coalition also questioned the Department of Labor and Employment’s (Dole) response to the case, saying the agency should take a more active role in defending the wage order it issued.
‘Employers are not merely trying to stop an ?85 wage increase. They are asking the courts to strip the country’s wage-setting system, flawed as it is, of its ability to enforce the wage orders it issues. If employers can simply run to the courts every time they dislike a wage order, then workers are left with rights on paper but no wages in their pockets,’ said Josua Mata, SENTRO secretary general and NAGKAISA! co-convenor.
NAGKAISA! spokesperson Rene Magtubo said the continued implementation of the TRO affects workers awaiting the wage increase.
‘Every day the TRO remains in force is another day millions of minimum wage earners are denied even this modest wage increase. Workers need leadership, not silence,’ Magtubo said.
For SENTRO, workers should have been given the opportunity to participate in proceedings involving the wage order before the TRO was issued.
‘This case is no longer simply about an ?85 wage increase. It is about whether workers can be excluded from judicial proceedings that determine their livelihoods, and whether employers can use the courts to delay even the modest wage increases that workers have already won.’
The labor federation reiterated its support for a legislated national living wage but said the existing wage order should be implemented while broader reforms are being pursued.
‘The real solution is not to freeze workers’ wages-it is to legislate a national living wage,’ Mata said. ‘Until that happens, employers and the courts must respect the law as it stands. Workers cannot be denied even the limited protections they have today.’
Meanwhile, Anakpawis Party-list also criticized the TRO, arguing that the P85 wage increase remains insufficient to offset rising living costs and renewing its push for the proposed National Minimum Wage Act of 2025, which seeks a P1,200 across-the-board daily minimum wage.
The Pasig Regional Trial Court Branch 152 earlier issued a 20-day TRO suspending the implementation of the P85 daily wage increase until Aug. 13 after two construction firms filed a petition questioning NCR Wage Order No. 27. The wage increase, approved by the National Capital Region Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board, was originally scheduled to take effect on July 25, with the P85 adjustment to be implemented in two tranches.
The Office of the Solicitor General has since asked the court to lift the TRO, arguing that the petition should have first undergone the administrative remedies provided under the Labor Code.
Malacañang has also expressed support for lifting the restraining order, saying concerns over the wage order should have been brought before the proper wage-setting bodies.
Separately, several senators, including Senate labor committee chair Joel Villanueva, Vice Chair Raffy Tulfo, and Sen. Risa Hontiveros, questioned the issuance of the TRO, citing provisions of the Labor Code that prohibit courts from issuing restraining orders against proceedings before the National Wages and Productivity Commission and regional wage boards. /mcm