DOLE pursues legal remedies in wage hike freeze

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August 15, 2026 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Labor and Employment will pursue all available legal remedies to defend the DOLE wage order giving Metro Manila workers an P85 pay hike, which a Pasig Regional Trial Court (RTC) has stopped through an injunction.

Labor Secretary Francis Tolentino said DOLE would continue to fight for the wage increase, which was intended to provide relief to more than one million minimum wage earners and their families.

“The ruling of Pasig RTC Branch 152 does not merely suspend a wage increase – it takes food off the table of more than a million Metro Manila workers and their families,” Tolentino said.

He noted the P85 increase represented additional income that workers could use for basic necessities, including food, transportation, rent, education and electricity.

“We will exhaust every lawful remedy to overturn this ruling and defend the rights and welfare of our workers,” Tolentino said.

Employers had proposed a lower wage hike during the tripartite talks but their opposition was reportedly ignored by Tolentino.

The employers had warned that the unusually high increase could lead to layoffs and business shutdowns as well as faster inflation. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and Foundation for Economic Freedom also expressed concern over the hike.

The Pasig City RTC Branch 152 granted on Thursday the petition of Readycon Trading and Construction Corp. and R-II Builders Inc. for a writ of preliminary injunction against Wage Order NCR-27.