Maintenance jobs on the Tay Road Bridge are to be cut as a result of restructuring and workers are being offered voluntary redundancy or early retirement.
The Tay Road Bridge Joint Board approved a scheme to make offers to reduce the number of maintenance staff from 12 to nine to make efficiency savings.
The main ways the cuts will be made include outsourcing a safety boat and changes to bridge inspections.
Board chairman Jimmy Black said: “We want to make the most effective use possible of public money and make sure the bridge is maintained to the high standard and have a motivated work force.
“We are examining other options to do with the safety boat and inspection regime so we can manage the bridge more efficiently.
“When someone is doing maintenance on the bridge, which happens around 26 weeks in the year, we have to use the safety boat.
“Currently we have a safety boat 52 weeks of the year but we really only need it for the 26 weeks when work is going on.”
Mr Black added: “If there was any suggestion that maintenance on the bridge would in any way be harmed, we would not have supported it.”
In his report, bridge manager Alan Hutchison said early pension payments would be met through the salary savings gained.
He added: “There may be net additional costs in 2014-15 which will enable gross salary savings to be achieved from 2015-16 onwards.”
Mr Hutchison said he had met trade union officials about the staffing review.
Workers who have paid less than 10 years into their pension will be offered an extra year’s payment to retire, while those who have more than 30 years will be given the maximum of five added years.
Jim McGovern, MP for Dundee West, said: “Today’s decision is one that I find extremely worrying, as a reduction in the Tay Road Bridge’s maintenance section from its present number could lead to the bridge’s inspection and maintenance, and ultimately its safety suffering.”
Members of the Tay Road Bridge Joint Board, which is made up of cross-party representatives from Fife, Angus and Dundee City councils, approved the voluntary early redundancy/early retirement plans yesterday.
The next step will see the bridge manager approach all employees in the maintenance section for whom this could be an option and they will have two weeks to respond.