Barristers in England and Wales will walk out next month on an all-out strike. It will mean thousands of court cases will be delayed.
The vote for all-out action was overwhelming with barristers, who have been walking out on alternate weeks, asked if they wanted to end all action, continue with the current action or walk out totally. They voted 79.5% for all-out action. You can see the details of the ballot here.
It means that from September 5, they will start an indefinite, uninterrupted strike. Barristers in Wales have shared their stories about why they say the action is needed arguing a barista in a coffee shop is paid better. You can read their stories in full here.
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Criminal barristers have a median annual income of £12,200 in their first three years of practice. UK Government cuts to legal aid have seen real pay slashed by 28% over the past decade. Criminal barristers are due to receive a 15% fee rise from the end of September, meaning they will earn £7,000 more per year. But there has been anger that the proposed pay rise will not be made effective immediately and will only apply to new cases, not those already sitting in the backlog waiting to be dealt with by courts.
CBA vice chairwoman Kirsty Brimelow QC said this is "last-resort action" over a demand for less money than it costs the Government for the courts to sit empty. She told BBC Breakfast: "The effect (of the strike) will be that the courts continue to sit empty with trials and cases not being heard. It is a last-resort action. The remedy is for an injection of money into the backlog of cases, which currently stands at 60,000 cases, that barristers are working on that will cost the Government only £1.1 million per month. Currently, it's costing much more for the courts to sit empty."
According to Ministry of Justice (MoJ) figures, more than 6,000 court hearings have been disrupted as a result of the dispute over conditions and Government-set fees for legal aid advocacy work. Data released under freedom of information laws show that during the first 19 days of industrial action, between June 27 and August 5, there were 6,235 court cases disrupted, including 1,415 trials, across England and Wales. The CBA said the action was already having a “devastating impact on the ability of our crown courts to function with any semblance of normality” and that the “continuing refusal of the Justice Secretary to negotiate a fair settlement with criminal barristers comes at a very heavy price”.
In a statement published on its website when it opened the ballot earlier this month, the CBA said members had indicated there should be “no pausing or halting of the ongoing programme of strike action”, adding: “It has become clear that a significant proportion of our members wish to be given an option to escalate our current action towards an uninterrupted strike in order to exert maximum leverage upon Government at this critical time.”
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