Wage Hike Injunction, Metro Floods Sending Workers Deeper to a Life of Poverty

 

Photo from Manila Collegian

A combination of days without work due to flooding with the non-implementation of the ₱60 wage hike (first tranche) due to court injunction is making life harder for minimum wage workers in the National Capital Region (NCR), Partido Manggagawa (PM) said in a statement Tuesday.

 

“The 1.1 million minimum wage workers in NCR are losing ₱66,000,000.00 a day from the Pasig court’s unjust imposition of injunction against the ₱60 wage hike. Add another day without work due to flooding for the same number of workers and the loss reaches a staggering ₱764,500,000.00 (₱695 present minimum wage x 1.1 million workers),” explained PM Chair Renato Magtubo.

 

Magtubo explained further that unlike Judge Manongsong, a government employee who keeps her salary intact when work in government is suspended due to bad weather, private sector workers get no pay under the principle of ‘no-work-no pay’.

 

“Kaya nga ‘imortal’ ang tawag sa mga manggagawa sa pribadong sektor sa ganitong mga panahon dahil sinusuong nila ang panganib at mas kinatatakutan nilang mawalan ng kita sa isang araw kaysa mabasa o lumubog sa baha,” said Magtubo.

 

The group stressed that this combination of labor injustice and climate crisis is a burden both lawmakers and the President must address at the policy level as well as in program implementation as the principle of check and balance between the co-equal branches of government doesn’t undermine the worker’s right to life and the rising standard of living.

 

Magtubo added: “This life and injustice completely escaped the mind of Judge Manongsong when she did the unimaginable issuance of TRO and injunction against the P85 wage hike.”

 

“Hindi kayang i-dismiss ni Judge Manongsong and pagbuhos ng ulan at baha, pero kaya nitong i-dismiss ang petisyon ng dalawang kapitalista lalo na at walang hurisdiksyon ang kanyang korte sa usapin ng sweldo,” said Magtubo.

 

Labor groups were pressing for the lifting of the court injunction against the ₱85 wage hike injunction before the Supreme Court, at the same time calling for Congress to rectify decades of labor injustice by abolishing the provincial rate system with the enactment of the ₱200 wage hike and the National Minimum Wage Law. 

 

PRESS RELEASE

18 August 2026