Court chaos threat in justice staff pay row
Angry prosecutors are ready to walk out
first minister Alex Salmond is due to be prosecuted for attempted rape and other sexual offences.
Allan Sampson, national officer for the lawyers’ FDA union, said: “There is an argument procurators fiscal are more public-facing, more publicly accountable, their job is extremely demanding, and they should be paid the same as lawyers for the Scottish Government.
“But there are separate bargaining units, and over the past few years Scot t ish Government lawyers have enjoyed increases higher than those working for COPFS.
“This has aggravated a longstanding area of concern and matters are coming to a head, with members increasingly irate.
“Meetings throughout the country have made clear there is a growing appetite for action if this isn’t addressed. We have demanded that pay policy encompass the principle of greater coherence within the civil service sector, and therefore allow us to address pay differentials.
“If the policy rules that out, it is difficult to see how any offer would be acceptable to our members in COPFS. Pressure is building, and things may come to a head in the early part of this year.”
Minutes of a Holyrood justice committee meeting in October detail claim that a trainee at the COPFS who stays on for five years after qualifying will earn almost £94,000 less than counterparts in the Scottish Government.
After the issue was raised with Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf in December, he admitted that the “last thing the Government wants is industrial action in that area”.
Tory Margaret Mitchell MSP, convenor of the committee, said the fiscal service was “haemorrhaging staff” because of the pay disparity, and the committee had raised the issued “many times”.
She added: “I don’t condone any strike action but this is an issue the Government has known about for quite some time and nothing has been done. The COPFS is the bulwark of our criminal justice system and so when it gets under pressure everything gets under pressure.”
The prosecution service has been operating under increasing pressure for years due to austerity cuts.
Budgets are understood to have been slashed by more than 20 per cent in real terms from their peak of about £118million.
A Crown Of f ice spokesman said: “COPFS has an ongoing and constructive dialogue with unions and staff over pay and benefits, informed by the available budget.”