The Pasig City Regional Trial Court has extended the suspension of the ₱85 daily minimum wage increase for workers in Metro Manila, issuing a preliminary injunction against its implementation on Aug. 15 — the same day the temporary restraining order (TRO) that had frozen the wage hike since late July was set to expire, according to a report by the Philippine Canadian Inquirer.
The order keeps more than 1.1 million minimum-wage earners in the National Capital Region without even the first tranche of the increase, which was supposed to raise the daily minimum wage for non-agricultural workers by ₱60. Wage Order No. NCR-27, issued by the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board in June, provided for a total ₱85 increase across two tranches — the largest single daily minimum wage increase ever approved in Metro Manila — with the second ₱25 tranche originally scheduled to take effect in January 2027.
From TRO to injunction
The Pasig Regional Trial Court Branch 152 first issued a TRO on July 30 after two construction firms, Readycon Trading and Construction Corp. and R-II Builders Inc., petitioned the court arguing that wage regulators had ignored employers' capacity to pay when they approved the increase. That TRO was set to lapse on Aug. 13. Rather than letting it expire, the court converted the restraining order into a preliminary injunction on Aug. 15, extending the freeze indefinitely while the underlying case proceeds and leaving the timeline for the wage hike's eventual implementation uncertain.
The Office of the Solicitor General has said it intends to fight the court order on behalf of the government. In early August, senators publicly criticized the TRO, and the Marcos administration voiced support for lifting it, according to prior reporting. Labor groups have also urged the Pasig court to lift the order, arguing the TRO itself violated labor law protections.
Why it matters
The dispute pits a legal question — whether a construction industry association can use the courts to block a wage board's regional order — against the immediate financial reality faced by well over a million of Metro Manila's lowest-paid workers, who have now gone more than six weeks without the wage adjustment government regulators determined they were entitled to. The case also raises a broader institutional question about whether regional trial courts have jurisdiction to enjoin wage orders that are typically the domain of the National Wages and Productivity Commission and the Court of Appeals — an issue that business media outlets flagged as a live jurisdictional dispute when the original TRO was issued.
What's next
With a preliminary injunction now in place rather than a temporary order, the wage hike will likely remain suspended for the duration of the underlying court case, unless the government succeeds in getting the injunction lifted or reversed on appeal. Pulpulitiko was unable to confirm, based on available reporting, a specific timeline for further hearings in the case or a public response from the two construction firms that filed the original petition.
Sources
- Pasig court extends suspension of P85 minimum wage hike in Metro Manila — Philippine Canadian Inquirer, Aug. 15, 2026
- Pasig court issues TRO on P85 Metro Manila minimum wage hike — GMA News Online
