Management posts are to be axed in a round of public service job cuts in Dundee and Angus.
More than 20 supervisory positions could be lost if the proposals to streamline janitorial and school crossing patrol services by merging with a private provider go ahead.
The proposal, which a report says would save £400,000 overall, would see 11 fewer management posts in Dundee, and another 10 positions be axed in Angus.
If approved, some functions and employees from Angus and Dundee City Council will transfer to Tayside Contracts, which will also suffer some job losses in the integration.
According to the report, to be presented to the Tayside Contractors Joint Committee next week, there will be no compulsory redundancies.
It says: “The savings will be realised by posts becoming vacant through natural wastage and voluntary redundancies or early retirals.”
However, the report adds it will be difficult to predict when the savings will be made.
A previous merger of the catering and cleaning management structures within Tayside Contracts has delivered annual savings in excess of £200,000.
In Dundee, Labour councillors Laurie Bidwell and Richard McCready had asked for more time for a further report and consultation with unions before the proposal was voted through, but his request was rejected by the council administration.
Mr McCready said: “Clearly this is being portrayed as an efficiency saving, which means that, in Dundee at the moment, there are 11 people doing unnecessary jobs, which the council should never have allowed in the first place.
“But we have to be realistic. You can’t keep cutting staff and simultaneously argue that you are keeping the same level of service.
“I hope that the council has taken on the views of trade unions and that it has tried to come to some agreement with them.”