Unions and management at The Irish Times are to begin negotiations on Wednesday on a viability plan to restore the company to financial health. Both sides emphasised the need for urgency yesterday, after a mass meeting of staff was given a report by the unions' financial advisers on projected losses of ¤17.9 million (£14.1 million) this year.
The new managing director, Ms Maeve Donovan, said: "The key issue is moving fast. The faster we get through the process, the more control of the financial situation we have." She accepted the unions' description of existing proposals to cut operating costs by €22.22 million (£17.5 million) a year, including 250 redundancies, as "a work in progress" and said its final shape would only emerge from the talks.
She also indicated that the company would be taking on board structural changes proposed by the union's financial advisers, Farrell Grant Sparks and Paul Sweeney and Associates. Besides changes to the Irish Times Trust, which are already under way, she said a remuneration committee to provide an independent mechanism for assessing the terms of senior management was "a high-priority issue".
Both sides have agreed the objective must be to keep job cuts to a minimum and ensure the newspaper is "viable and sound" after the plan is implemented. Ms Donovan said: "The overall strategy is clear but the detail will only emerge when we enter discussions. For instance, the question of what are acceptable staffing levels in various areas can only be done directly with people in the area."
The talks beginning on Wednesday will decide the structure for negotiation. These are likely to be in two phases. The first will decide the overall shape of the package, including the redundancy formula for those leaving, as well as overall terms and conditions for those remaining. The second phase will examine implementation at local level.
Ms Donovan hoped redundancies would be voluntary but added that the organisation had to end up with new structures that maximise the use of people, their skills and the new technology in which The Irish Times has invested so heavily.
Earlier, the chairman of the Dublin Printing Trade Group of Unions, Mr John White, assured a meeting of over 400 Irish Times employees that redundancies would be voluntary. He also told members that the group of unions intended monitoring cutbacks to ensure pain was spread evenly across the workforce.
The main presentation was made by Mr Derek Donoghue, of Farrell Grant Sparks, while Mr Greg Sparks and Mr Paul Sweeney dealt with questions. Mr Donoghue said the financial advisers had not carried out an audit of The Irish Times but had been given full access to the accounts.
These indicated that last year's performance would leave the company with a €1.27 million (£1 million) profit, compared with €24.25 million (£19.1 million) in 2000. On current trends, costs would rise from €92.44 million (£72.8 million) last year to €114.66 million (£90.3 million) by 2004. Over the same period revenue would fall from €93.71 million (£73.8 million) to €89.39 million (£70.4 million). Payroll accounted for 48.8 per cent of costs last year and would rise to 63 per cent by 2004 on the present trajectory.
Although the meeting was for information purposes several speakers availed of the question and answer session to make stringent criticisms of the trust and the management's past performance, including the decision to move the printing press to Citywest on the outskirts of the city.
The union's advisers said the company's structures in the past had been "archaic" but advised against getting rid of the trust. They questioned if the company had secured the best value for money in building the new plant. But they said it was needed.