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15.04.2019 / News / Press releases / LSWU

Barristers join United Voices of the World

• Paralegals, solicitors and barristers across the UK have voted to unionise through the trade union United Voices of the World (UVW) to form Legal Sector Workers United (LSWU)

• LSWU aims to tackle the sector’s poverty pay, inequality and fight to bring back legal aid

• LSWU will represent all workers in the sector including cleaners, security guards, receptionists, interns, personal assistants, legal administrative staff, paralegals, trainee solicitors, pupil barristers, practicing solicitors and barristers

• Leading figures from the legal world, including Michael Mansfield QC and John Hendy QC, have come out in support of the creation of LSWU

Michael Mansfield QC said:

“This initiative is long overdue. I was involved in an earlier effort in the 1970s which was far less ambitious and did not survive. This has the advantage of a far wider constituency of workers who are constantly at risk of exploitation and marginalisation despite their critical role.”

The legal sector is riddled with poverty pay and huge wage inequality and junior workers are bearing the brunt.

Paralegals often do not even earn the real London Living Wage of £10.55 per hour, yet equity partners in the same firms can take home over £2 million per year.

Likewise, some junior barristers earn as little as £12,000 per year and can often earn under even the minimum wage after costs are deducted for a days’ prosecution, which is sometimes paid at a flat fee of £46.50. These meagre wages have already pushed barristers to take strike action over the past two years.

LSWU also aims to face the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) head-on over its cuts to legal aid and its failure to pay the real living wage to 3,000 of its in-house and outsourced staff.

UVW is already in dispute at the MoJ where its members — the Ministry’s security guards, receptionists and cleaners — have walked out on strike for a total of six days demanding the real London Living Wage hour and equality of terms and conditions with civil servants.

A LSWU founding member said:

“UVW is a pathbreaking union with a well-established record of organising the most precarious and vulnerable workers in the UK who are often considered “un-organisable” by the established unions. This is precisely what legal workers now need. That’s why LSWU is being launched. We aim to collectively bargain with our employers all over the country, in solidarity and coordination with all of us who make up this sector.”

John Hendy QC, Chair of the Institute of Employment Rights and the UK’s leading trade union and employment law barrister, said:

“I support the unionisation of all workers in all sectors. The inequalities in income and in terms and conditions in the legal world are notorious and I therefore support the initiative to form the Legal Sector Workers under the banner of United Voices of the World.”

Jonathan Black, President of the London Criminal Courts Solicitors’ Association (LCCSA), said:

“I welcome the launch of this organisation which will seek to bring about a common purpose across the legal professions and beyond. The law may be broken, but it can be fixed by ensuring the voices are heard, not only through the LCCSA but also through the LSWU.”

Lucie Wibberley, a criminal defence barrister at Garden Court chambers, said:

“With the arrival of LSWU, as part of the Trade Union movement, we see a new generation of lawyers, with a renewed sense of purpose and a vision for the future, determined to protect legal aid and all that it stands for. It signifies a turning point in the politics of legal provision and a step towards a brighter future.”

-END-

For further information please write to petros@uvwunion.org.uk or call 07884 553443 / 07734 351792

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