Labor groups moved on Monday to intervene in a court case that halted an P85 minimum wage increase in Metro Manila, arguing that the legal challenge filed by two construction firms could undermine the country's wage-setting system.

In a 26-page motion, Kamanggagawa Party-list Representative Elijah “Eli” San Fernando, the NAGKAISA! Labor Coalition and allied labor groups argued that the construction firms improperly bypassed the administrative appeals process by seeking court intervention before exhausting remedies under the Labor Code, which requires challenges to wage board decisions to be brought first before the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC).

“If we do not crush this TRO right here and right now, we are opening the floodgates to a dangerous precedent,” San Fernando said. 

“What is stopping big businesses in Visayas or Mindanao tomorrow from securing a TRO from another local court every time a regional wage board passes an increase,” he added.

The Pasig RTC last week granted a TRO sought by Readycon Trading and Construction Corp. and R-II Builders Inc., temporarily stopping the implementation of Wage Order No. NCR-27, which provides an P85 daily wage increase for minimum wage earners in the National Capital Region. 

The court ordered the companies to post a P1 million bond and set a hearing on their application for a writ of preliminary injunction on 3 August.

Readycon and R-II Builders filed a petition for declaratory relief questioning whether employers’ capacity to pay had been adequately considered before the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board-National Capital Region approved the increase. 

The companies asked the court to clarify employers’ rights and obligations under Wage Order No. NCR-27 and to suspend its implementation while the case is pending.

The wage order, approved in July, grants an P85 increase in two tranches. The first tranche of P60 was scheduled to take effect on 25 July, while the remaining P25 increase is due in January 2027. Once fully implemented, the daily minimum wage for non-agricultural workers in Metro Manila will rise to P780 from P695.

San Fernando also called on the Department of Labor and Employment and the NWPC to defend the wage order and assert their authority over wage-setting disputes.

“We challenge DOLE and the National Wages and Productivity Commission to stand strictly with the workers,” he said. “DOLE must assert its primary jurisdiction and enforce NCR Wage Order No. 27 immediately.”

The court had yet to act on the labor groups’ motion as of Monday.