Criminal barristers across England and Wales are to go on strike indefinitely from September 5th over an ongoing pay dispute with the British government.
Barristers across England and Wales will down tools on September 5th for a strike that is now due to last “indefinitely” over an ongoing pay dispute with the British government.
As the cost of living crisis puts pressure on people across the country, many unions have put pressure on the government and industry to bump pay packets, with teachers, rail workers, and civil servants all either considering or actively taking part in strikes over pay.
Barristers are another profession that had been striking regularly in protest at the size of their pay packets, with the lawyers reportedly engaging in phased industrial action aimed at disrupting the courts.
However, according to a report by Sky News, all barristers in both public prosecutions and defence will now down tools in early September until an agreement is reached.
Those in the industry are at this point demanding a 25 per cent pay rise, with the Criminal Bar Association — representing those due to go on strike — saying that the hike is proportionate considering barristers have supposedly seen a 28 per cent earnings decrease since 2006 when taking inflation into account.
The government has so far only been willing to offer barristers a 15 per cent pay rise, which is due to come into effect at the end of September and will not be back-dated to impact the pay for court cases that are already in motion.
Tory government bigwig Sarah Dines, who is currently Britain’s justice minister, has lambasted the decision to strike as being “wholly unjustified”, complaining that the move will only cause further delays in a court system with a backlog of around 60,000 cases — a figure that doubled over the Wuhan virus pandemic.
While Dines may be complaining about the move, it appears that her party is doing very little to address the underlying causes of the strike, instead seemingly focusing almost all efforts on the ongoing race to become the next Tory leader.
This obsession with the ongoing leadership race at the apparent expense of governing the country has resulted in accusations that the outgoing Boris Johnson is currently operating a “zombie” government, with The Guardian reporting that decisions have been delayed in half of the state’s key state departments.
Johnson himself is currently on his second summer holiday of this year, with The Mail describing the sitting political leader as private island hopping in Greece as the United Kingdom faces its worst inflation crisis in decades.
With Britain also facing the possibility of rolling blackouts over the winter, energy bosses have lost their patience with those in government, demanding that the Tories end their leadership contest immediately and get back to solving the host of crises facing the United Kingdom.
“Frankly, the Conservative Party needs to sort themselves out, decide who the leader is going to be this week,” the head of Utilita, Bill Bullen, is reported as saying, with energy officials calling on the government to pull the trigger on a potential energy price freeze before costs end up out of control for consumers.
“Frankly, for the sake of the nation I think the Conservative Party need to sort their leadership contest out quicker than they’re currently planning to do it,” Bullen added.
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