Labor group urges Zalameda to ensure speedy resolution of labor cases

Amid a contentious legal battle over the P85 daily wage increase in Metro Manila, labor groups have pressed the Supreme Court under newly appointed Chief Justice Rodil Zalameda to expedite long-standing workers' rights disputes.

“Ang manggagawa, arawan ang sahod; sana ang hustisya, hindi dekada ang hintayan (Workers earn their pay everyday; hopefully, justice doesn’t need decades to reach),” Federation of Free Workers (FFW) president Jose Sonny Matula stated on Friday, 6 November.

Among such cases is the pending petition before the SC challenging the move by the Pasig Regional Trial Court (RTC) to issue an injunction that stopped the implementation of the P85 daily wage increase in Metro Manila under Wage Order No. 27. FFW is one of the petitioners in the case.

With this, the FFW asked Zalameda to review aging labor cases pending before the Court of Appeals and the SC, put in place stronger monitoring of delays, and implement measures to prevent repetitive or plainly dilatory motions from frustrating the resolution of cases and the enforcement of final judgments, consistent with due process.

The federation also called for clearer procedural guidance and coordination between trial courts, labor arbiters, and the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) on workers’ claims affected by rehabilitation, insolvency, and liquidation proceedings, particularly concerning jurisdiction, stay orders, and the determination and payment of labor claims.

Matula noted that Zalameda has penned a number of favorable labor decisions that provide grounds to expect careful attention to workers’ actual circumstances and legal protections.

“We hope Chief Justice Zalameda will bring that attention to the administration of the entire judiciary. The constitutional promise of full protection to labor must be felt in both the fairness of decisions and the time it takes to obtain and enforce them,” Matula stated.

“Speedy labor justice must become a reality that workers and their families can experience,” he added.