Union members at Independent Newspapers (Ireland) are to hold a meeting today to discuss company plans for the contracting out of editorial production work at the group's four titles.
The move is expected to lead to 34 job losses through voluntary redundancies, primarily in subediting and page layout/assembly, but the final figure could be significantly higher.
A Dublin-based company, RE and D Ltd, is understood to be preparing to take over the contract to produce the pages, with the move expected to lead to significant cost savings.
Today's meeting follows a two-and-a-half hour meeting yesterday at which management outlined a new "editorial development plan". This will affect staff of the Evening Herald, HeraldAM, Irish Independent and Sunday Independent and includes the introduction of a new editorial IT system by May.
More than 330 editorial staff are employed across the Independent group's titles, of which around 200 are involved in subediting and page layout/ assembly. Staff are being offered six weeks' pay plus statutory redundancy for every year of service, capped at €250,000 but equivalent to a minimum of one year's gross pay plus statutory redundancy. The company predicts this will generate packages of between €55,000 and €60,000 in the majority of cases.
Jim Aughney, the father of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) chapel at the company, said it would be telling members at today's meeting to take their time if considering the package.
One source at yesterday's meeting said they were told €17 million is available for redundancies, meaning there was a strong possibility the company would be seeking a higher number of redundancies. "People were angry and highly suspicious. They feel like there is an invisible gun being held to their head."