RAISING THE BAR
of barristers from our profession, with an attrition rate of about 25%. That means that we are losing people every single day (last year, we lost 300 criminal barristers), and the reason why they are leaving our profession is that
particular – they have been awarding themselves huge bonuses, amounting to hundreds of millions of pounds, and the government doesn’t seem to be worried about this causing further inflation. That tells you all you need to know: the government are
they can’t afford to work on the very low wages which they are paid. This has all sorts of implica- tions: it means that we can’t actually service the big cas- es, including the caseload which is stuck in the system. That, in turn, means that there are thousands of victims waiting to have their day in court. Many of these victims, specifically victims of rape and sexual offenc- es, are walking away from cases, because they’re in despair about this. For months now, I have been asking the Secre- tary of State for Justice, Dominic Raab, to come to
favouring people who are rich over people who are poor. And basic economics will tell you, when you put an extra pound into the pocket of a poor person, they’re likely to spend it on a neces- sity, whereas if you give it to a rich person, they’ll put it in a savings account to accu- mulate interest. The amount we’re asking for is so modest that if you gave it to a junior barrister, all it would be spent on is things like train fares to get to court: it’s not going to cause wage-price inflation. Not long after this inter- view, the barristers and the
When considering the strikes of the last year or so, it is sometimes forgotten that junior barristers set the ball rolling: Sujaan Singh Kochhar (Year 12) investigates
I t is evident to me that, since David Cameron’s an- nouncement of the Brexit referendum, way back in the summer of 2015, Britain has seen failed administra- tion after failed administration. We have witnessed the Conservative party shifting ever further to the right, with more and more laissez-faire Reaganomics seeping into their policies; we have seen corruption and illegal lobby- ing at the highest level, including by a prime minister; and we have seen rising inflation, with the pound languishing in the currency markets. In addition, support for Scottish in- dependence is apparently growing, and popular approval ratings for the government have declined. It is the strikes, however, which have been particularly prominent of late. As a result of the cost of living crisis, British workers have been facing real-terms pay cuts, finding it more and more difficult to afford basic living expenses such as food, transportation and heating. To preserve the criminal justice system for a future generation, it’s really important to ensure that our junior barristers are paid properly Allow me to take you back to March 2022: Britain had been dragged through lockdown after lockdown for the best part of two years, the economy was in freefall, and Mr Johnson’s credibility was practically non-existent, with evidence shared by the media about his infamous 2020–21 ‘work gatherings’. The country was in crisis. And it was during this spiralling chaos that the CBA (Criminal Bar Association) voted strongly, on 14 March, in favour of taking industrial action, demanding better pay for junior barristers. The strikes began on 11 April, with over 2,500
barristers participating. Other unions followed suit, with the RMT taking ongoing action, causing hundreds of trains to be cancelled (it may have even caused you to be late to school at some point), and the COSLA (Scottish refuse workers’ union) striking for better pay, causing rubbish to pile up on the streets of Scotland’s cities for over two weeks. During this time, I decided that I would head straight for the source. I spoke to Jo Sidhu KC, Chairman of the Criminal Bar Association, to find out more about why the barristers were striking. SUJAAN SINGH KOCHHAR: Can you tell me about the current situation? JO SIDHU: The action we are embarked upon as criminal barristers in England and Wales is the result of a ballot of our members which we held at the end of June 2022, and which returned an 81% vote in favour of taking action against the government, as we were concerned about the plummeting levels of legal aid fees. It is important to understand that barristers who do legal aid work are self-employed professionals: when we’re not working, we’re not able to earn any money. The decision to go on strike has been taken, even though it means that we will be losing money every single day that we are on strike, because barristers feel very passionately that, in order to be able to preserve the criminal justice system for a future generation, it’s really important to ensure that our junior barristers are paid properly. Just to give you an idea about how badly they’re paid, our junior barristers in their first three years are earning a median income of about £12,000: that’s below the minimum wage. And so what we’ve been seeing over the last five years is a loss
government came to an agreement, settling on a 15% pay rise for criminal barristers (only marginally above the rate of inflation at the time) as well as an extra £7m of funding for the courts. Although this was 10% less than the 25% demanded by the Criminal Bar Association, the barristers still voted by 57% in favour of halting the strikes, and to begin work on the 60,000-case backlog. However, over the course of this year, more and more unions have voted Last year, we lost 300 criminal barristers, and the reason why they are leaving our profession is that they can’t afford to work on the very low wages which they are paid to take industrial action, including teachers and junior doctors. Even the nurses’ union, the RCN, voted to go on strike for the first time in history. It is clear, to me at least, that many of these issues have their origins in the past decade of Tory rule, and that yet another Conservative government is not the solution. ◎
the table and talk to me: as leader of the Criminal Bar it is my responsibility to speak on behalf of barristers, and if he’s not prepared to speak to me and find a solution, then the next prime minister should either speak to us or appoint someone who is willing to. SSK: One common criticism I hear from supporters of the government is that increasing wages may deepen the current inflation crisis. JS: Before I came into law, I read PPE at Oxford and then I studied International Relations and the International Economy at LSE, so I know a little bit about economics. I’m afraid to say that what the government is telling the public about this is completely wrong. There isn’t a risk of wage-price inflation at the moment because people’s incomes have dropped so much that they’re struggling to pay for the basic necessities in life, like their gas, elec- tricity and food bills. The idea that paying people more money is automatically going to translate into inflation is what the government is peddling as an excuse not to fund the public sector. The thing is, when it comes to the private sector – let’s look at the banking sector in
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THE ALLEYNIAN 711
OPINION, INTERVIEWS & FEATURES
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