Workers' groups ask SC to lift restraining order against P85 minimum wage increase
Several groups of workers and a Party-List member of Congress asked the Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday, August 12, to lift the restraining order issued by the Pasig City regional trial court (RTC) against the P85 minimum wage increase in Metro Manila.
They also asked the SC to stop all proceedings in the trial courts on the wage hike issued.
The petitioners are the Kampihan ng Maralita at Manggagawa and its Party-List Rep. Elijah Rumbaoa San Fernando, 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, Unified Filipino Service Workers, Partido Manggagawa, Council of Teachers and Employees in Schools, Colleges and Universities in the Philippines.
Named respondents in the petition were the two branches of Pasig City RTC and one branch of RTC in Navotas City.
Also named respondents were several corporations like the Readycon Trading and Construction Corporation and the Alliance of Philippine Fishing Federations, Inc.
They told the SC that the minimum wage increase “directly affects the fundamental right to a living wage of millions of minimum wage earners (and their families) in the National Capital Region and impacts the socio-economic equilibrium of the country’s economic center.”
Thus, they said that “restraining its implementation threatens public welfare, workers’ livelihoods, and economic stability, among others.”
They pointed out that they had to appeal to the SC to resolve the issue because they have “no other plain, speedy, and adequate remedy in the ordinary course of law that could free them from the injurious effects of respondents' acts in violation of their rights protected under the Constitution.”