LOPEZ SUGAR CORP V. FRANCO (LABOR)

FACTS: Lopez Sugar issued a Memorandum for the adoption of a special retirement program for selected supervisory and middle-level managers, allegedly due to over-staffing and duplication of functions. Private respondents, all supervisory employees who organized a labor union which was currently undergoing CBA negotiations with Lopez Sugar were included in its coverage and terminated from employment.

ISSUE: Was the termination of respondents by virtue of the special retirement program valid?

HELD: NO. The corporation illegally dismissed the private respondents by including them in its special retirement program, this debilitating the union, rendering it pliant by decapacitating its leadership. No standards, criteria, or guidelines for the selection of the employees to be dismisses were made known to them, and all they were told was that they had been selected for termination.