Short answer. No, it no longer exists. Article 298 abolished the Court of Industrial Relations outright, along with the earlier National Labor Relations Commission created under Presidential Decree No. 21, transferring the Court's funds, records, and needed staff to the new Commission, so an old CIR matter's institutional successor today is the current National Labor Relations Commission.
What the law says
The Court of Industrial Relations and the National Labor Relations Commission established under Presidential Decree No. 21 are hereby abolished.
Labor Code, Article 298 — Abolition Of Prior Tribunals. Read the full provision →
Two tribunals abolished, not one
Article 298 does not just retire an old court — it abolishes two bodies at once. The first is the Court of Industrial Relations, the pre-Labor Code tribunal that used to hear industrial and labor disputes. The second is a National Labor Relations Commission that had briefly existed under a different presidential decree, Presidential Decree No. 21, before the Labor Code created the Commission most people recognize today. Both were creatures of an earlier legal framework that the 1974 Labor Code replaced wholesale.
Where the old Court's assets and people went
The article does not just erase the Court of Industrial Relations — it directs what happens to what it leaves behind. Its unexpended funds, properties, equipment and records, along with whatever personnel were still needed, transferred to the new Commission and its regional branches. That is a deliberate continuity mechanism: old case files, physical records, and even staff did not disappear when the Court did, they moved into the institution that replaced it, which is part of why old CIR-era documents can sometimes still be traced through today's NLRC.
The earlier Commission's assets went elsewhere
The old National Labor Relations Commission under PD 21 is treated differently from the Court. Its unexpended funds, properties, and equipment transferred not to the new Commission but to the Bureau of Labor Relations, a separate office. So the two abolished bodies did not simply merge into one successor — their assets were routed to two different destinations, which matters if someone is trying to track down where a specific old record or fund actually ended up.
What happened to the people who worked there
Article 298 also addresses staff who were not carried over into the new Commission or the Bureau. Personnel not absorbed by or transferred to the Commission did not simply lose everything they had earned — the article specifies they shall enjoy benefits granted under existing laws, meaning whatever entitlements the labor and civil service laws of the time already gave to displaced government personnel continued to apply to them, even though the office that employed them no longer existed.
Related provisions
- Labor Code, Article 298 — Abolition Of Prior Tribunals
- Labor Code, Article 297 — Existing Policies And Bonds
- Labor Code, Article 299 — Transfer Of Pending Cases