In light of the 11 percent rise in profits at the Financial Times in 2008, FT staff will announced they would hold a strike ballot in protest of 80 job cuts and a pay freeze Media Guardian reported Wednesday. The staff also said on Thursday they would discuss the matter in person with Marjorie Scardino, CEO of FT's parent company, Pearson.

Shareholder dividends are up 7 percent, yet employees are taking pay cuts, said David Crouch, acting father of the FT's chapel for the National Union of Journalists. "Does Pearson value its staff less than its shareholders? If staff are being asked to share pain, why are shareholders not included?" he wrote to the FT's managing editor, Dan Bogler.

FT staff will also question why the 32 percent increase in profits to £74 million for the FT, FT.com and FT Business has not resulted in less redundancies, Media Guardian reported.

The FT union will also request that editorial staff be given profit-related bonuses and that the salaries for low paid employees be raised.

A spokesman for the FT said no compulsory redundancies will come from editorial.