Glasgow employer United Biscuits is to shed more than 200 jobs at its McVitie's factory.
United Biscuits said 202 jobs are at risk from a restructuring at the McVitie's factory in Glasgow, although some workers will be able to reapply for 36 new position, leaving a net reduction of 166 workers.
The GMB union said the announcement has come at the worst time in the run-up to Christmas.
A United Biscuits spokesman said: "United Biscuits can confirm that it has today announced proposals to restructure working practices and manufacturing operations at our Tollcross site.
"This is part of our ongoing commitment to deliver a modern, efficient and competitive operation, and without these changes Tollcross will not have a sustainable future in the local community.
"We are now discussing the proposal with employees, employee representatives and local government.
"We have been working with Scottish Enterprise and appreciate their support that has enabled us to safeguard jobs.
"However, regrettably, we do anticipate redundancies through this process and are committed to working with all parties to minimise the impact.
"Individuals who may be impacted will be able to benefit from the PACE outplacement programme."
He added: "These major changes unfortunately mean redundancies and 202 jobs are at risk, out of circa 680 roles on site.
"However, it also means some new opportunities will be unlocked with the creation of 36 new roles and also the introduction of 19 up-skilled operator positions available. This would mean an overall headcount reduction of 166 jobs."
Harry Donaldson, regional secretary of GMB Scotland, said: "Murat Ulker, who took over the McVitie's factory in Glasgow earlier this month, told the 700 workers that there will be 202 job losses. This has come at the worst time of year in the run-up to Christmas".
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article