The ABC Canberra office will be downgraded from a metro to a regional classification as part of sweeping changes to be announced on Monday.
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The Sunday Canberra Times understands experienced 666 ABC producers will be told to accept demotions in urgent meetings called with managers for Monday morning, hours before managing director Mark Scott outlines his plans to save $254 million over five years.
A Community and Public Sector Union spokesman said 25 staff based in the ACT – not all at Northbourne Avenue – had contacted the union after being called in for the Monday meetings.
ABC Canberra sources said four band-6 producers would be called in and told they needed to revert to band 5 – a potential pay cut of more than $10,000 – to retain their positions.
"Management has refused to answer questions about exactly what the meetings will contain, except to say that there are 'categories' of discussions and that one of those categories is redundancies," one staff member said.
"Everyone is extremely tense, not just those who've been called into individual meetings with management."
While the scrapping of state-based editions of 7.30 – which employs three staff in the ACT – and cuts to Lateline had been confirmed by separate sources, the downgrading of the Northbourne Avenue office had not been publicly discussed.
CPSU ABC organiser Bow Campbell said the meetings in Canberra were part of wider meetings planned to occur across the national broadcaster before Mr Scott's address.
In an email to the union's ABC members late on Friday, Mr Campbell encouraged staff not to make snap decisions.
"The ABC has indicated that they wish to speak directly to those individuals who are directly impacted by these cuts, prior to them hearing the all-staff announcement," he said.
"Please be aware that these meetings are a formality by ABC management – there is no obligation on individuals to react, respond, or make decisions based on the content of such meetings until the formal consultation is complete and a process mutually agreed upon."
Mr Scott told a Senate estimates hearing on Thursday the number of redundancies nationally would be "very significant".
