Workers at Independent Newspapers in Dublin have voted in favour of industrial action in a dispute over the company's €23 million redundancy plan.
Three branches of SIPTU, comprising clerical, administration and print staff, approved the move this morning. The results of ballots by other unions at the company, including the National Union of Journalists and the TEEU, are expected to be known later today.
Independent Newspapers has told some staff that if they refuse to accept a voluntary redundancy package by tomorrow, they will be made compulsorily redundant and will receive only statutory redundancy terms.
The company insists the terms of the voluntary package are generous and that workers will receive between €40,000 and €260,000, depending on length of service. It has also said it engaged in "extensive consultation" with the unions on the redundancy plan.
But the unions have accused the company of breaking industrial relations agreements and of ignoring recommendations made by the Labour Relations Commission, the Labour Court and the National Implementation Body to force through 205 redundancies.
It is understood that around 190 people have already accepted the voluntary package.
Ms Ethel Buckley of the SIPTU clerical branch, told ireland.commany of her members felt they had "a gun to their heads" to accept the deal.
She said the union had done everything in its power to exert pressure on the company to return to normal industrial relations procedures. The company had declined an invitation from the National Implementation Body to return to the Labour Court to resolve the dispute, she said. The company said earlier this week it had "respectfully declined" the invitation.
Ms Buckley said that some of the clerical staff whose jobs were to be "outsourced" to another company had been given the option to take the redundancy deal or to transfer to new companies based in Cork, Armagh and Herefordshire in England. They had been told that if they did not take one or other option, they would be deemed to have resigned their jobs and would receive no redundancy.
"We have always taken the view that it is not a reasonable option to expect people to move to the UK to follow their jobs," she said. Ms Buckley said there were still staff working at Independent Newspapers who wished to remain there and who did not want to avail of the redundancy package. Many of them have long service - at least one individual affected has almost 40 years service with the company, she said.
Ms Buckley said the atmosphere at the company was now "absolutely appalling" because people were now leaving on a daily basis once they had accepted the redundancy package.
SIPTU's Dublin regional secretary, Ms Patricia King, said: "This dispute is about management's 'Hobson's choice', voluntary redundancy package - take it or be sacked - as well as breaches of individual collective agreements and Sustaining Progress."
Journalists at the newspaper are not affected by the redundancy programme. However, the National Union of Journalists has condemned Independent Newspapers for "tearing up" collective agreements with its sister unions.
The Irish Secretary of the NUJ, Mr Seamus Dooley, said last week that the Irish Executive Council "fully supports" the stand taken by the other unions.