Company must appraise labor union of any fair, reasonable criteria for redundancy

As has been made clear, even this Office recognized that an authorized cause for dismissal did exist; what it could not countenance is the means employed by the Company in making the cause effective. But no matter what kind of justification the Company presents now, this has become moot, academic and irrelevant. The same should have been communicated to the affected employees prior to or simultaneously with the implementation of the redundancy, or at the very least, before the assailed order was rendered. In any event, the explanantion being advanced by the Company now purportedly based on areas of assignment - loses significance from the more compelling viewpoint of efficiency and seniority. For instance, during the period covered by the Company's own time and motion analysis, Rogelio Varona delivered 96 messages but was dismissed; Resurrecion Bordeos delivered only an average of 75 but was retained. In terms of seniority, the Company itself states that "Ms. Bordeos holds the same position/area as Rogelio Varona, however, she was retained because she is more senior than the latter." The Company should look at its own evidence again. Bordeos had only 16 years of service. Varona had 19, Neves 18, and Valle, Basig and Santos 17, yet all five were dismissed. One should also consider that the redundancy was implemented at the height of bargaining negotiations. The bargaining process could have been the best opportunity for the Company to apprise the Union of the necessity for redundancy. For unknown reasons, the Company did not take advantage of it. Intended or not, the redundancy reinforced the conditions for a deadlock, giving the Union members the impression that it was being used by the Company to obtain a bargaining leverage. [G.R. No. 117174. November 13, 1996]