The Supreme Court has required the Department of Labor and Employment to comment on a petition filed by labor groups last month seeking to strike down the Wage Rationalization Act.
In a resolution, the SC ordered the DoLE and the National Wage and Productivity Commission to submit their respective comments to the petition that pushed for a uniform minimum wage all over the country.
The tribunal gave Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz and NWPC executive director Ma. Criselda Sy 10 days from receipt of notice to comply with the order.
In their 29-page petition, the labor groups led by former Akbayan party-list congressman and now senatorial candidate Walden Bello asked the high court to stop the NWPC and all the regional tripartite wage and productivity boards from further issuing regional wage orders.
They also asked for the abolition of the 17 RTWPBs and a standardized or uniform National Minimum Wage all over the country.
Petitioners, including the Ugnayan ng Maralita Laban sa Kahirapan (Umalab Ka) party-list, National Federation of Labor (NFL) and Solidarity of Independent and General Labor Organizations (Siglo), argued that the law being implemented since 1989 violates the equal protection clause of the constitution.
They said the implementation of R.A. 6727 has set different minimum wages all over the country with the highest as P481.00 in the National Capital Region and as low as P250 at the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Through lawyer General Du, petitioners said the law also violates Article 135 and 248 of the Labor Code, which prohibits labor discrimination.
They cited records showing that only 207,507 of 62,189,000 laborers are covered by collective bargaining agreement (CBA): “This means that virtually most of Filipino laborers do not have bargaining power over their employers. That is why living wage legislation is important.”
Petitioners further argued that the wages set by NWPC and RTWPB have failed to meet the suggested living wage by various think tanks, including the Ibon Foundation.
Data from Ibon Foundation showed that the daily minimum wage in May 2012 was P446 while the family living wage is P1,017 —or a discrepancy of P571.
Asked why they filed the petition only after 26 years of implementation of the law, Du explained that the labor groups have been busy fighting for wage increases all these years and have not really put their focus on the issues involving the legality of the law.
Earlier last week, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines filed a petition seeking a daily wage increase of P154 in Metro Manila.
It said eight million workers are living below the poverty line as a result of rising cost of basic needs and the low minimum wage whose real value amounts to P364.12 a day excluding deductions for Social Security System, Pag-Ibig and PhilHealth premiums. With Vito Barcelo