However, national officer Steve Sibbald has not ruled out the possibility of action being taken after redundancies are made, if a selection criteria is not to the union's liking.

GNM announced redundancies at the London-based Guardian Print Centre at the beginning of July, with Unite members at the plant voting to take action over the selection criteria.

A ballot had been proposed while the two parties negotiate the situation, but with the consultation period set to end soon it is unlikely anything will come of it.

Sibbald said: "Inevitably, the longer the negotiations go on, the closer we will be to the point where we have to come to an agreement. At that point redundancies will be made."

Unite is not at odds with the redundancies, but is looking to ensure that it has a say on the selection criteria if any compulsory redundancies take place.

Sibbald added: "If the company insisted on a selection criteria we weren't happy with, we could still ballot as a point of principal, but that would be a bit late for protecting people's jobs."