Employees of publishing giant Reed Elsevier face months of uncertainty as the company announced plans to sell its under-performing education division.

Harcourt Education, which employs 660 people at Jordan Hill in Oxford, publishes textbooks and has been hit by a slump in its US market.

Anna Wagstaffe, secretary of the National Union of Journalists in Oxford, said the proposed sale was "disappointing" and poor reward for the professional and dedicated staff.

"A survey conducted by the union three years ago showed that many staff were consistently working between 25 per cent and 33 per cent over their hours, for no extra pay.

"It is disappointing to see they are now being rewarded by being sold off."

She said the NUJ and the other staff union, Amicus GPM, aimed to ensure that jobs and conditions were protected, whoever bought the company.

"We hope that a wealth of knowledge and experience in educational publishing is not lost to this city," she added.

Reed chief executive Crispin Davis said in a statement: "There is momentum behind our digital revenues driven by a widening range of innovative online information products, increasingly embedded in customer workflows.

"The planned sale of our Harcourt Education division announced today sharpens our strategic focus and concentrates our resources on the digital opportunities."

The company said its education business strategy had 'increasingly differed' from its legal, science and business-to-business publishing divisions.

It added that the sale of the education business would return capital to shareholders.

The Anglo-Dutch group reported a four per cent rise in full-year revenue and said market conditions for 2007 were generally positive.

Reed, which also owns Kidlington-based Elsevier Science, boasts the Lancet medical journal and New Scientist magazine among its 15,000-plus publications.

Adjusted pre-tax profit rose five per cent to £1.02bn on revenue of £5.39bn.

The group was hit by a double-whammy as the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust sold its £2m shareholding because of its links to the arms trade.

According to the trust, two Reed subsidiaries, Reed Exhibitions and Spearhead Exhibitions, have continued to organise arms exhibitions despite the charity's three-year campaign to make Reed sever ties to the arms trade.