Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) Secretary Francis N. Tolentino pledged to fight for Metro Manila’s minimum wage earners after a court issued an injunction temporarily halting a planned P85 daily wage increase.

To recall, the Pasig City Regional Trial Court Branch 152 issued a writ of preliminary injunction stopping the implementation of Wage Order No. NCR-27, which covers more than 1.1 million minimum wage workers in the National Capital Region.

The injunction follows a petition for declaratory relief filed by two construction companies and the court ordered the injunction to remain in place while the case is resolved, requiring the petitioners to post a P10 billion bond.

Tolentino said DoLE will exhaust all legal options to overturn the ruling and defend the wage relief.

“The ruling does not merely suspend a wage increase — it takes food off the table of more than a million Metro Manila workers and their families,” Tolentino said. “At a time when every peso matters, this ruling denies our workers the relief they have earned and urgently need.”

Issued in June, Wage Order No. NCR-27 provides an P85 increase broken into two tranches. The first tranche — a P60 hike that took effect 25 July — raised the daily minimum wage for non-agricultural workers from P695 to P755. A second tranche of P25 is scheduled for 20 January 2027, bringing the daily rate to P780.

The order also raises the minimum daily wage for agricultural, service, retail, and small manufacturing workers from P658 to P718 in the first tranche, with an additional P25 due next year.

In its 13 August order, the court said the pause aims to preserve the status quo and prevent irreparable harm to all parties while it reviews the merits of the case.

“The injunction herein issued is, at its core, a preservative relief that would ensure that the rights of both management and labor are considered, and their existence or livelihood sustained,” the court said.

Meantime, labor group Akbayan criticized the P10 billion bond requirement, arguing that it gives corporate employers a way to stall wage relief.

The court directed both parties, including the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board-NCR and the National Wages and Productivity Commission, to file their responses.

It also gave parties three days to comment on motions to intervene filed by the Federation of Free Workers and the Association of Minimum Wage Earners and Advocates-PTGWO.

The wage increase remains suspended pending further court proceedings.