COURT ORDER STOPS FUTURE PAYMENT OF FIRST NCR WAGE TRANCHE
Labor groups continued protesting a court order that stopped the continued implementation of the first part of an approved ₱85 daily minimum-wage increase in Metro Manila.
NCR Wage Order No. 27 divided the increase into two stages. The first ₱60 took effect on July 25. The remaining ₱25 is scheduled to take effect on January 20, 2027.
The legal sequence is important.
On July 24, Pasig Regional Trial Court Executive Judge Rowena de Juan-Bulauitan denied a request for an immediate 72-hour temporary restraining order but directed the parties to maintain the existing situation while the case was being raffled to a branch.
The first ₱60 increase took effect the following day. Some employers began paying workers under the higher minimum-wage rate.
On July 30, Judge Marivic Balisi-Umali Manongsong of Pasig Regional Trial Court Branch 152 issued a formal 20-day temporary restraining order against the implementation of the wage order.
The case was filed by Readycon Trading and Construction Corporation and R-II Builders Inc.
The TRO did not erase the increased wages that workers had already earned or received from July 25 until the order was issued. The Department of Labor and Employment said workers do not have to return money already paid under the higher rate.
The order instead stopped employers from continuing to apply the ₱60 increase while the TRO remained in force.
Labor groups argued that a Regional Trial Court had no authority to stop the wage order. They said challenges to regional wage-board decisions should pass through the National Wages and Productivity Commission under the procedure provided by labor law.
That is the workers’ legal argument. The court has not issued a final ruling on the challenge or on the jurisdiction dispute.
The first ₱60 tranche therefore took effect and was paid before the formal TRO. Workers who had already received the increase keep it. Workers whose wages fell within the period covered by the restraining order may remain on the previous minimum rate until the court changes or resolves its order.
WHAT TO WATCH
Watch whether the Pasig court extends, lifts or replaces the temporary restraining order, and how it addresses the labor groups’ argument that the wage dispute should first pass through the National Wages and Productivity Commission.