Court Chaos Warning As Prosecutors Threaten Strike

Scotland’s prosecutors are considering taking strike action, a move which would bring the courts to a standstill. Procurators fiscal say they are furious the Crown Office has refused to make their pay gradings equal to that of Scottish Executive lawyers.

The move follows publication of an independent report which highlighted a pay gap between prosecutors and other lawyers and suggested executive lawyers and fiscals were doing equivalent work.

In 2003 the chief executive of the Crown Office said management would seek to assimilate the pay scales. However, earlier this month they told fiscals this would not be possible.

The fiscals’ union, which represents 80% of Scotland’s 400 fiscals, has voted unanimously to reject the pay offer from the Crown Office.

Members will vote on the deal this week. Depending on the result, they will then be balloted on strike action.

Prosecutors say recent changes in the criminal justice system mean fiscals face increasing workloads and tighter deadlines, particularly in major trials.

They believe the demands of preparing and leading cases on behalf of the public entitles them to at least equal renumeration with executive lawyers who draft legislation.

Figures released to The Herald show that last year 25 fiscals left, more than double the number who resigned in the previous two years. Prosecutors have warned that more fiscals will leave unless management acknowledges the importance of their role.

“This is a complete betrayal of the trust and faith that our members placed in the department in 2003 and a failure to value the contribution of our members over the past five years,” said one fiscal.

“Far from working to achieve comparable salaries for Scotland’s prosecutors, management has failed to honour this commitment by saying that they no longer consider that our members have the necessary skills and experience to warrant parity with lawyers in the executive. All our members are asking for is a fair and transparent pay system.”

A report commissioned by the Crown Office in 2002 recommended procurators-fiscal should be paid the same as lawyers of equivalent seniority in the executive. Current figures show an advocate depute on a basic grade earns £31,365 compared with £36,203 for an equivalent executive lawyer.

The revelation comes a week after it was revealed the number of lawyers employed by the executive has more than doubled since since the Scottish Parliament was established.

The Crown Office is offering staff up to 4.3% a year over the next two years and said it cannot afford to align fiscals’ pay with that of executive lawyers.

Jim Caldwell, Scottish officer for the fiscals’ union, the FDA, said: “The issue is that the comparability study commissioned by the Crown Office revealed that fiscals were underpaid compared with the equivalent group in the executive.

“There was no guarantee, but they indicated that they would move towards assimilating the pay scales. Now they are saying that it is never going to happen.”