Substantive talks on a rationalisation programme at the Irish Times begin today. Corporate governance and a voluntary severance scheme to shed 250 of the company's 710 jobs are expected to top the agenda.
The group of unions made it clear at last week's exploratory discussions with the company that it expected further management restructuring and a greater say in strategic decision-making if it was to recommend cutbacks to members.
At today's meeting, union leaders are also likely to raise other issues from the report prepared for them by Farrell Grant Sparks and Paul Sweeney and Associates. These will include the future of the £50 million state-of-the-art printing press built to produce the paper at Citywest.
While the management position is that substantial progress has already been made on corporate restructuring, particularly in relation to the Irish Times Trust, it is likely to make a formal response to the unions when substantive talks begin this morning.
Unions will also probably be given initial facts and figures on the proposed voluntary severance and early retirement scheme.
The unions have made it clear they want any job cuts to be voluntary, while management has argued that acceptance of the cuts is essential to agreeing the rest of the agenda, including corporate governance and the move to Citywest. If outline agreement can be reached on job-cut targets and related issues over the next few days, both sides are expected to begin local negotiations on the impact of the proposed changes within each department.
The company's director of human resources, Mr Michael Austen, said yesterday: "Management are coming to the process positively to provide various pieces of information the trade unions sought last week. We need to move quickly because of the financial constraints facing us."