Failure to adhere to the promises of no compulsory redundancies and full consultation on changes to services will spark a fresh wave of industrial action in the nation's biggest city, unions are warning.

The claim comes as Glasgow City Council announced it was shedding almost 400 jobs to balance the books as the impact of the credit crunch and inflation rises take their toll on local government finances.

Some 289 of the posts will go in the next financial year.

Yesterday, council leader Steven Purcell met with the main unions and issued a pledge that no staff would be forced out the door.

Departmental directors have also promised to continue consulting with unions on the proposals - a process that has already been going on for two months.

But the biggest union within the council, Unison, and the GMB, which represents thousands of the lowest-paid members of staff, have expressed frustrations at how the talks have been going so far, particularly in relation to how jobs would go and terms and conditions changes in particular departments.

Unison's Mike Kirby said: "The leader has assured us that there'll be no compulsories, but the consultation so far, particularly around land and environmental services, is not what we'd expect it to be.

"We're not hitting the streets at present, but if promises to avoid compulsories is not delivered we will look at industrial action."

Martin Doran, of the GMB, added: "We've still got a significant shortfall to make up and we've got concerns about a number of areas, including home helps.

"We'll work with the directors to find a way forward, but if there is any element of compulsion with the redundancies we will defend our members vigorously."

The proposals, few of which have taken unions and opposition by surprise, are, however, some of the most radical savings proposed by the authority and include plans to axe £140,000 in contributions to VisitScotland and up to 55 mid-managers from social work to save £4m.

Teachers on conserved salaries or in surplus posts will be offered early retirement packages In a move mirroring the concordat between local authorities and the Scottish Government earlier this year, head teachers will be given control of their own budgets with the caveat they collectively meet almost £3m.

Tellingly, the Labour-run authority has also scheduled savings of around £10m across the two years as a result of the end of ring-fenced funding following the concordat.

Greg Dempster, general secretary of the Association of Headteachers and Deputes in Scotland, said his membership in Glasgow would broadly support more devolved budgets but would prefer the move to have been made "in a time of surplus rather than deficit".

He added: "With a number of schools in the city also still under capacity, the council might want to look again at rationalising the schools estate to ensure it gets the maximum from the education budget."

The home help "rapid response teams", which provide assistance mostly to elderly clients leaving hospital, will no longer have two staff per unit, to save £900,000, and almost £3m will no longer be spent buying residential places for troubled youngsters from other authorities.

A massive structural overhaul of land services will see the council give up the leases on dozens of vehicles, new working patterns introduced and vehicle uplift charges increased, saving just in excess of £5m across the two years.

The Linn Equestrian Centre is also due to shut. Although the savings are only budgeted at £43,000, it runs at an annual loss.

A spokesman said the facility "is facing a projected loss of £125,000 this year".

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