Junior physicians and criminal law barristers are the latest organizations to pledge to strike over wages and working conditions this summer.
Both professions are in conflict with the government, and while junior doctors are threatening to strike barristers are already being balloted from today on action.
It comes as part of a wave of strikes planned by rail employees, garbage collectors, and postal workers in what is building up to be a ‘Summer of Discontent.’
Junior doctors have endorsed a motion to demand the government restore their ‘complete restoration of pay,’ according to the British Medical Association, alleging that their actual incomes have decreased by 22% in 12 years and that increasing inflation is hastening their losses.
A possible strike has already been authorised, with a target date of early next year ‘at the very least.’
Junior doctors can earn up to £35,000 per year, whereas newly trained criminal barristers can earn as little as £12,000 after costs, rising to over £60,000 in a few years.
Dr Sarah Hallett and Dr Mike Kemp, co-leaders of the BMA’s junior doctors’ committee, said: ‘No junior doctor wants to feel like industrial action is their only option, but we are increasingly confronting little choice.’
Meanwhile, a week-long ballot on increasing existing action, in which barristers work their allowed hours and no more, is set to begin today.
Due to a dispute with the Ministry of Justice about legal aid rates, this has already been in effect for six weeks.
According to the Times, under the existing system, junior lawyers are sometimes paid less than the minimum wage.
The government claims to have increased legal aid funding by £135 million, but criminal barristers have pointed out that this money was divided among all advocates, including solicitors, and did not go directly to them.
The Criminal Bar Association is polling 2,500 of its members and claims that a 25% salary rise is needed to keep barristers on the job.
‘Over the next several days, every member of the Criminal Bar will have the opportunity to express their views on the course we should follow to ensure the future survival of our profession,’ the Association posted on Twitter.
‘All possibilities will be discussed. Any action that our members demand will be taken almost immediately.’
After the coronavirus pandemic disrupted the justice system, there is currently a backlog of up to 60,000 cases in English and Welsh crown courts.
Cases had to be heard in two, or even three, courtrooms due to successive lockdowns and tight social distance restrictions, dramatically decreasing the number of cases handled at any given time.
According to the Ministry of Justice, the backlog has decreased “due to our decisive action and the hard work of legal experts, especially criminal barristers, who will earn approximately £7,000 more per year as a result of our reforms.”
The government has “provided no promise that these long-awaited reforms will ever be enacted,” according to Jo Sidhu QC, chairman of the Criminal Bar Association.
Instead, he claims, the Ministry of Justice insists on future modifications being cost neutral.
The government’s unwillingness to take immediate action, according to Sidhu, “is simply increasing case delays and heaping misery on complainants and victims of crime, whose trials are repeatedly postponed due to government intransigence.”
The potential walkout comes as rail travellers prepare for six days of mayhem starting June 21 when 50,000 members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) go on strike.
The workers will strike on the London Underground and 13 rail operators, with 1,000 Unite Tube workers joining them.
Although railway operators will not issue a blanket ban, travelers will be advised to “only travel if absolutely necessary.”