Barristers have gone on strike for the third week in a row over salary and conditions, after rejecting a 15% pay increase.
The four-day protest of defense barristers began today, causing significant disruption to criminal hearings.
Lawyers gathered at the Supreme Court in London, as well as the Crown Courts in Birmingham, Preston, and Plymouth, to support the ongoing Criminal Bar Association (CBA) action over conditions and Government-set costs for legal aid advocacy work.
Criminal barristers will receive a 15% fee increase beginning in September, according to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), which means an average barrister will earn £7,000 extra per year.
Barristers work for themselves. Prior to Covid, barristers who claimed to work full-time on crime received an average of £61,000 after expenses in 2019-20, according to the Bar Council, but this fell to £47,000 in 2020-21 after the pandemic shuttered courts.
Pay may be restored to pre-pandemic levels now that courts have resumed in-person hearings. However, rates may have fallen in real terms as a result of the consequences of inflation.
Furthermore, there has been outrage that the proposed salary increase will not take effect immediately and will only apply to new cases, not those currently sitting in court waiting to be heard.
According to the Criminal Bar Association, due to the court backlog, higher rates would not go into effect until late 2023 or 2024.
They further claim that the revised offer was really submitted in March, with the sole difference being the request to expedite execution.
The CBA accused the government of’refusing’ to talk last week, warning that victims of crime and defendants attempting to prove their innocence will not get their day in court unless officials take steps to’reinject’ funding into a ‘barely functioning’ justice system.
Justice ministries asked the organization to accept the’very generous’ wage offer in order to ‘prevent victims from having to wait longer for justice.’
Strikes are scheduled for five days next week.
The action will be paused for a week beginning July 25 and will resume between August 1 and August 5.
The CBA then plans to strike on alternate weeks, with no end date, with the action to remain under review and subject to the Government’s response.
