MANILA – Labor groups on Wednesday filed a petition asking the Supreme Court (SC) to nullify the Pasig Regional Trial Court’s (RTC) orders against the implementation of the PHP85 minimum daily wage hike in the National Capital Region.
In their 39-page petition, Kamanggagawa Party-list Rep. Eli San Fernando and eight labor organizations filed a petition for certiorari and prohibition, questioning the temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by Pasig RTC Branch 152 Judge Marie Joyce Manongsong and the status quo ante order by Branch 154 Judge Achilles Balauitan.
The groups questioned whether lower courts have legal authority to hand down orders that intervene in issuances, such as Wage Order No. 27 by the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB), and other similar orders from the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC).
“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.
Earlier, workers’ groups, led by Akbayan Party-list, asked the SC’s judicial integrity office to review the circumstances behind the Pasig RTC’s orders against the PHP85 wage increase for the private sector.
The law prohibits courts from issuing injunctions against wage hikes and instead provides a 10-day window mechanism for aggrieved parties to appeal to the board that ordered the increase.
The two lower court injunctions were issued based on a petition filed by construction firms Readycon Trading and Construction Corp. and R-II Builders Inc.
The labor groups also asked the SC to issue an order guiding lower courts to outrightly reject and dismiss any petitions against wage orders.
Other petitioners are Workers and Peasants’ Party of the Philippines, UNI Global Union-Philippine Liaison Council, Federation of Free Workers, National Federation of Labor, Sentro ng Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa (Sentro), Unified Filipino Service Workers, Partido Manggagawa, and the Council of Teachers and Employees in Schools, Colleges and Universities in the Philippines. (PNA)
