Guardian staff reject 1pc pay rise amid redundancy fears

STAFF at The Guardian have rejected a 1pc pay rise as they fear potential job cuts amid a deep advertising downturn.

Bosses have offered the pay increase for 2024 alongside a £2,000 salary uplift, which was announced last year. Staff were also handed a one-off cost of living bonus of £2,000 in 2023.

But it is understood members of the National Union of Journalists have rejected the rise, which is significantly below inflation, which is more than 5pc.

It follows a warning that the paper expects to make a £39m loss in the current financial year because of a sharp drop in advertising revenues. The Left-leaning newspaper has said it will have to begin cutting costs, sparking fears of a wave of redundancies.

One source said: “We are all sitting around waiting for the other shoe to drop. We have been told there’s no room for a big pay rise, and the troops are already talking about when the first round of redundancies will begin.

“Morale has been at a low since Covid and this won’t help. It leads you to think what all these highly paid execs are doing if we get to the brink so quickly.”

Insiders said bosses had slashed budgets across the board in an effort to shore up finances. The pay dispute and potential job cuts will compound tensions after staff were ordered to return to the office for a minimum of three days a week from last month.

The decree has been met with anger by union members, who have complained that staff were not consulted.

While The Guardian offers a £15 monthly subscription, it does not charge for its online articles and relies heavily on advertising revenues and donations from readers.

In a sign of the financial pressures, the newspaper recently introduced an article cap that limits readers to 20 free stories in the app, after which they must pay to keep reading. It comes amid sweeping cuts across the media industry as rising inflation and the wider economic downturn forced many brands to cut back advertising. Reach, which publishes the

Mirror and Express as well as a host of regional newspapers, has cut almost 800 roles in the past year amid an exodus of both readers and ad revenues.

A Guardian spokesman said that they had no plans for any significant headcount reductions.