While there are redundancy clauses and long periods of notice in the case of dismissal based on the time served, the union acknowledges that this is a difficult climate for the industry in general. According to the MeAA, there is an increasing use of casuals and freelancers, although the more intense period of casualisation occurred in the early 2000s. The union attempts to enforce that, if a journalist has been a casual for more than six months and has worked a regular pattern of shifts, s/he has the right to become a regular member of staff. Yet in a time of credit crunch and structural change, newspaper and other media are reluctant to take on permanent staff. Yet the casualisation can also be seen as an opportunity for all those hundreds of journalists who have been made redundant and now earn their living as freelance journalists.
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