Although no decision was made on its exact form, the members backed both a strike or action short of one, such as an overtime ban. The action will commence on Monday 26 July.

The ballot follows the announcement of four redundancies out of the firm's 19 press minders earlier this month. It is believed that the four employees were selected for redundancy and banned from the workplace without due consultation.

"We're in discussions at the moment with the company on ways of avoiding the redundancies," said GPMU South East of England branch secretary Dennis Spencer. "We don't want to resort to industrial action but we will if it's necessary."

An insider at the firm believed that reason for the redundancies was increased pressure on margins.

"St Ives Westerham reported last year that they'd made 1.1m profit," said Spencer. "So they seem to have gone from riches to rags."

As PrintWeek went to press, no-one at St Ives was available for comment.

By Darryl Danielli