Workers at the Avonmore Waterford Group have been offered a redundancy package that could give many long-serving employees between £30,000 and £40,000 each. The AWG group of unions is recommending acceptance to its members in a ballot.

However, the secretary of the group, SIPTU regional secretary, Mr John Dwan, stressed that negotiation of the package - and its acceptance by the workforce - would only clear the decks for discussion on how many, if any, redundancies would be negotiated. While figures as high as 1,500 have been floated, Mr Dwan says that no figure has been put to the unions.

The earliest that any redundancy negotiations could begin is early December, as the company's internal review of its operations has not yet concluded. The company has promised to present its findings to the unions by the end of this month and it is expected to look for no more than 1,000 voluntary redundancies. The details of the redundancy package have still not been released formally, but the central element is an offer of six weeks pay for each year of service, including statutory entitlements. This places it at the upper end of such deals within the private sector. There is also provision for top-up payments to make the package attractive to workers with short service.

Union representatives met in Portlaoise yesterday to hear details from the negotiators. They decided to recommend them to members. Afterwards, Mr Dwan said that members would be balloted over the coming week and the result will be announced on Friday, November 21st.

"Agreement to accept the package should not be taken to mean acceptance of even one voluntary redundancy," he said. "It merely puts in place a formula which will apply in the event that any voluntary redundancies are negotiated and agreed." A spokesman for the company said later that it was pleased at the result of the union meeting.

Average earnings in the group are more than £300 a week and a significant proportion of the workforce has long service. On the basis of six weeks pay for each year of service, an employee with 20 years service would be entitled to £36,000.

There are 4,500 employees of Avonmore Waterford Group in the Republic, of whom 2,300 are in the ICTU. The majority of the 12,000 employees are based outside Ireland. There are 6,000 employees in Britain and another 1,000 in Belgium and Germany. The amalgamation of Avonmore and Waterford means that there is now considerable duplication in production, distribution and administration within the group.

It has been estimated that rationalisation of Avonmore Waterford operations could generate savings of more than £150 million, if it was accompanied by around 1,000 redundancies. Avonmore Waterford is now the fourth-largest dairy-based company in the EU and the seventh largest in the world. It has been valued at £800 million.

However, it is a comparatively small player in the international food business. Unilver is 50 times larger and Nestle, which has a smaller European dairy based operation, is 40 times larger.