A ballot over industrial action had been proposed at the London site, which prints The Guardian newspaper, over the selection criteria for redundancies.

This action has now been averted. Of the 24 redundancies made, the "vast majority" were voluntary, believed to be around 20.

Unite is still appealing against one of the compulsory redundancies.

However, the union is claiming a victory in its negotiations. National officer Steve Sibbald said: "We negotiated a better deal. We are not proceeding with a ballot. Peace and harmony has broken out at he Guardian [Print Centre]."

Joe Clark, director and general manager for newspapers at Guardian News and Media (GNM), said: "Like the majority of businesses in this sector, GNM has had to react to very difficult trading conditions, the downside of which has been the need to make redundancies at GPC.

"We are glad the matter has been resolved without industrial action. To their great credit, staff have maintained their professional commitment and negotiations with the union were constructive throughout."

Plans for a ballot were touted because Unite was concerned its members could get a raw deal over redundancy packages – the site has only been in operation for five years and has a comparatively young workforce.

Although the union did not appose the redundancies, it was concerned with the criteria proposed to decide which staff would be made redundant in the event that enough voluntary members were not found.