Minimum wage hike must be paid before TRO, DOLE says

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has stated that employers are obligated to pay their employees the approved minimum wage hike that was earned prior to the issuance of a temporary restraining order (TRO) by the Pasig Regional Trial Court. "The workers already have a vested right to those earnings, so they shouldn't have to return them," said DOLE Secretary Francis Tolentino in a "24 Oras" report. He further elaborated, "Especially today, since it's pay day, no money should be taken back because at the time it was prepared and at the time it was received, there was no order from the National Wages and Productivity Commission suspending it yet." On Thursday, the Pasig RTC issued a TRO, effectively halting the implementation of the P85 minimum wage hike in Metro Manila that had been approved by DOLE in June. In an eight-page order, Presiding Judge Marie Joyce Manongsong granted the petition of Readycon Trading and Construction Corp. and R-II Builders, Inc., directing the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board-National Capital Region (RTWPB-NCR) and the NWPC to cease the wage hike's implementation until August 13. "A TRO is issued only if the matter is of such extreme urgency that grave injustice and irreparable injury will arise unless it is issued immediately. In this case, the court finds that the elements were sufficiently established by petitioners," the order read. Separately, Akbayan Representative Chel Diokno asserted on Facebook that no court injunction can impede wage orders, citing safeguards within the Labor Code. "A reminder: Under Article 126 of the Labor Code, no court can issue a restraining order to stop the implementation of a wage order. The law and the rights of workers must prevail," Diokno stated. Source: GMA Money Philippines