Redundancy notices have been sent out to 238 Barnsley Council workers this week.
At the same time, in a separate move, talks are being held over plans to change working hours for council staff.
Council workers are currently contracted to work from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday and they are paid one and a half times their daily rate if they work Saturdays and double the rate if they work Sundays.
But the council wants to change those terms and conditions so some workers could work any five days out of seven without qualifying for extra pay at weekends.
Council leader Steve Houghton says the changes are necessary as the authority struggles to impose £80m cuts.
He insists the only alternative to more flexible working patterns is more service and jobs cuts.
Coun Houghton said: "The cold facts are that unless we can cut the costs then services will be lost and that will lead to even more job losses.
"We have to look at every service we provide and see how that can best and most economically be delivered and clearly some services need to be delivered seven days a week.
"We cannot afford to pay extra when it is necessary for people to work at weekends. At a time of financial constraints we cannot say someone doing a certain job on a Sunday should be paid twice as much as someone doing exactly the same job on a Tuesday."
Coun Houghton said there is already ongoing consultation with unions and workers over the changes.
Rachel Hughes from UNISON said: "There has been some progress made already during discussions on this matter.
"Those discussions are now at a delicate stage and therefore we do not wish to comment any further."
A spokesman for the GMB said members will be balloted when the final proposal is confirmed.
The redundancy notices posted out this week are also part of the budget cuts. The council says it is hopeful that the final number of job losses will be less than 238, but that is also part of ongoing consultations.
