REUTERS journalists in London have agreed to hold a formal strike ballot amid concerns about plans to cut jobs and relocate editorial staff to Bangalore, Singapore and elsewhere around the world.

Strike action could lead to the suspension of the company’s real-time news services, which are widely used in the City, although an employee ballot is not likely to take place until January.

Barry Fitzpatrick, a union organiser with the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), said: “We will invite management to meet us and review their position. If that’s not successful, a ballot will be held probably early in the new year.”

Reuters employs 2,300 journalists, including 400 in London, out of a total workforce of 14,700. The company is under pressure to slash costs in order to deal with declining sales, and is halfway through a three-year programme, called “Fast Forward”, that is designed to save £440 million annually by the end of next year.

Staff fear that 250 jobs, or more than 10 per cent of the company’s journalists, could be affected in the next round of cuts and relocations, which is due to be announced shortly.

A spokeswoman for Reuters said that 250 jobs was a “total exaggeration” but did not give an alternative figure.

Reuters has already relocated ten jobs from Wall Street to Bangalore, where Indian-based journalists will cover the results of smaller US-listed companies. Next year the Reuters photographic desk will be centralised in Singapore, while online activities are being concentrated in Toronto, Canada — locations far from the events that most staff report on.

Journalists agreed to the strike ballot at union meetings on Monday. The decision was unanimous, one Reuters employee said. “We expect to win the ballot and the whole of London editorial will be paralysed during one-day walkouts,” said the employee, who asked not to be named.

This month the NUJ’s informal ballot of Reuters staff found by 137 votes to 24 that members were “prepared to strike”.

Separately, Reuters issued a statement in an attempt to clarify days of speculation as to the fate of Instinet, its majority-owned US stockbroking service. Last week, it emerged that the company had put the $2 billion (£1.1 billion) business up for sale and had hired Morgan Stanley to act as adviser.

Yesterday Reuters said that it “will consider opportunities to extract value for its holding” in Instinet. Options on the table were “a possible sale, merger, or other business combination or corporate transaction”. No particular course of action has been determined, the company said.