BBC Journalists Face Ballot on Industrial Action Over 100-Plus Job Cuts

The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) will ballot its BBC members on industrial action over plans to cut more than 100 journalism roles. The ballot runs from 3 to 24 November. Deadline reported the news on 28 October 2026.

Members will be asked to vote on strike action or on other measures short of a walkout. One of those is a work-to-rule, where staff do only their set duties and nothing beyond them.

The cuts are part of a wider savings drive. The BBC is pursuing savings totalling £500 million (about $664 million). BBC News will close more than 100 roles over the coming months to save £5.5 million. It still needs to find at least another £20 million to reach its minimum savings goal of £51 million.

The cuts did not start with this round. In June, the BBC said it would close 550 roles across its News, Nations and Content divisions, and announced £160 million in savings alongside them. The BBC's own media centre described those closures as the first stage of the plan to save £500 million.

BBC deputy director general Rhodri Talfan Davies told staff the NUJ ballot was a "disappointing development". The corporation has said it needs to make the savings, and the union has said it wants to contest the redundancies.

A separate pay ballot closes on 5 November. The BBC has raised its pay offer to a 1.5% rise or a minimum of £1,000, whichever is higher. Its earlier offer was 1% or a minimum of £500. The corporation has also dropped proposed changes to staff terms, including curbs on taxi (cab) use for night-shift workers.

Neither the NUJ nor Bectu, the broadcasting and entertainment union, is backing or opposing the new pay offer. Both unions had earlier rejected the BBC's pay terms as below UK inflation of 2.8%, Deadline reported in September.

Staff have walked out before. In March 2023, BBC employees staged what Deadline described as the biggest walkout in 13 years, over plans to make nearly 50 roles redundant across local services.

For listeners and readers, the stakes are in the newsroom itself. Fewer journalists means fewer reporters and producers on the stories the BBC covers. The ballot result will show whether members back action, and the pay ballot closing on 5 November is the next milestone.