SC halts fixed pay scheme for bus drivers, conductors

Bus operators opposing the recently imposed fixed salary scheme for their drivers and conductors can still keep a tight hold on their purse strings.

The Supreme Court has temporarily halted the implementation of the separate orders of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) which compelled bus firms to have a regular wage system for drivers and conductors in Metro Manila.

Ma. Victoria Gleoresty Guerra, the high court’s acting spokesperson, said the tribunal in full-court session Tuesday granted the petition filed last week by four transport groups.

The petition, filed by the Provincial Bus Operators Association of the Philippines, the Southern Luzon Bus Operators Association Inc., the Inter-City Bus Operators Association and the City of San Jose del Monte Bus Operators Association, challenged the DOLE and LTFRB orders for purportedly being unconstitutional.

Guerra said the tribunal issued a status quo ante (SQA) order instead of a temporary restraining order (TRO), which the bus groups sought in their pleading.

According to her, an SQA order has the same effect as that of a TRO as it “explicitly states that it enjoins or prohibits an action by the respondents.”

“SQA orders are issued to preserve the situation prevailing between the parties before the issuance of the assailed actions,” Guerra explained in a news briefing.

“The court found that there is a need to first preserve the situation (before the DOLE and LTFRB enforced their orders),” she added.

The LTFRB and DOLE maintained that the new wage system for bus drivers and conductors would help reduce road accidents, noting that drivers tend to commit traffic violations, like reckless driving, just to get as many passengers as they can under the old “boundary” or commission system.

Because of the high court’s order, Guerra said the bus companies can revert to the commission system which they had been implementing for years.

She said the court also directed the DOLE and LTFRB to submit their separate comments on the petition within 10 days.

The DOLE and LTFRB started enforcing the fixed salary rates on July 1, but Guerra said the bus companies should compute the appropriate wages for their conductors and drivers using the previous commission scheme.

The bus companies argued that the new system violated the terms of their existing collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) with their employees, which were “products of intense and lengthy negotiations.”

“Most of such arrangements had been in place since time immemorial and had, in many instances, proven to be better” and resulted in “higher pay to more drivers and conductors, more than what the minimum wage levels offer,” they said.

“(The DOLE order also) violates the equal protection clause in the Constitution as (it was) aimed to cover only Metro Manila buses and not the entire transport sector throughout the country, even though they are similarly situated,” the bus firms said in a 24-page petition.

Reached for comment, DOLE National Capital Region Director Alan Macaraya said: “We will have to respect the order of the court and stop our inspection.”

He said DOLE-NCR had started inspecting 158 bus companies in Metro Manila over the past two weeks and was actually scheduled to award compliance certificates to two more bus companies Tuesday afternoon.

“We now have five companies with (compliance certificates) and are expecting four more companies to get theirs later this week,” he noted. With a report from Philip C. Tubeza