The Guardian Is Ending Casual Shifts. Up to 315 People Are Losing the Work For Good.
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
In short. The Guardian has told the National Union of Journalists it will end its use of casual staff, people who work regularly for the paper without being formally employed [1]. The 370 people who did casual shifts in the last 14 months are to be replaced by 45 to 55 new, mostly part-time "rota shortfall" posts, plus 40 digital apprenticeships; Press Gazette's own figure for what that nets out to is a loss of work for up to 315 people [2]. The ledger logs a loss of 315, graded ANNOUNCED, status at-risk, region London, ai_cited: not-raised.
What was announced
Casual staff are not employees. They work shifts regularly, sometimes for years, without a contract that guarantees them anything beyond the shift in front of them. The Guardian has told its NUJ chapel it is ending that arrangement entirely [1]. In its place: 45 to 55 new "rota shortfall" roles, mostly part-time, on fixed and full-time contracts, to be offered first to the people currently doing the casual shifts, and 40 new digital apprenticeship positions advertised separately [2].
Run the numbers the way the union has. Three hundred and seventy people did casual work for the paper in the last 14 months. At most 55 of them get offered one of the new rota-shortfall posts. That is a gap of up to 315 people who did shifts for the Guardian this year and will not be doing them under the new system. The paper is separately creating 55 permanent roles across the UK, US and Australia this year, but nothing ties those posts to the casuals losing work here, so they are not counted against the 315 [2].
What the union is contesting
The NUJ is not treating this as settled. Its statement is explicit that "changes to freelance and casual terms must be negotiated between the paper's NUJ chapel and its management," and that the union intends to hold out for "equal treatment for all, an end to stand down, and secure jobs for as many as want them" [2]. The union has separately flagged a capacity problem with the new structure: it estimates the 45 to 55 rota-shortfall posts, even fully staffed, would leave the paper roughly 30 per cent short of the workload the casual rota currently covers. Casuals who are not offered, or do not take, a rota-shortfall role are to be paid compensation, and the union says it will advise members on whether to accept that or pursue a claim some other way [2].
AI is not cited anywhere in this story, by the Guardian or by the union. The stated logic is restructuring the shift system itself, not automating any part of the work casuals did.
Why this sits oddly against the usual redundancy story
Most losses on this ledger are straightforward: a company proposes to cut a number of posts, a consultation runs, people leave. This one is not shaped like that, because casual staff were never employed in the first place. Nobody at the Guardian is being "made redundant" in the legal sense this ledger usually logs under that word, and the paper has not filed anything with a court or a regulator, because there is nothing that requires it to. That is exactly why the figure is worth logging carefully rather than skipping: up to 315 people are losing paid, regular work at a national newspaper, and the only reason that does not show up in a redundancy statistic anywhere is the employment status the Guardian chose not to give them. Status is at-risk rather than departed, because terms are still being negotiated and no final cut-off date for the old casual system has been confirmed.
How the ledger logs it
A loss of 315, graded ANNOUNCED because the source is NUJ and trade-press reporting of a company announcement, not a statutory filing. Sector media, region London, ai_cited: not-raised. The gross number affected (370) and the new roles created (45 to 55 rota-shortfall posts, 40 apprenticeships, 55 unrelated permanent roles elsewhere) are carried in the body rather than folded into a single net figure, because collapsing four different numbers into one is the exact failure this ledger exists to avoid.
What happens next in this ledger
Two things to watch. Whether NUJ negotiation actually moves the final headcount of rota-shortfall posts up from the 45-to-55 range, which would narrow the 315 figure; and whether a firm date for ending the old casual system ever gets confirmed, at which point this row moves from at-risk to departed.
Sources
- EIN Presswire, "The Guardian ends casual status," 6 October 2026. https://www.einpresswire.com/article/947791748/the-guardian-ends-casual-status
- Press Gazette, "Journalism job cuts in 2026 tracked: Latest from Metro, Guardian, Future, Reach." https://pressgazette.co.uk/news/journalism-job-cuts-in-2026-updates/