By Rupert White


Half of the 2,000 legal advisers in magistrates' courts appealed against pay awards under a new Ministry of Justice (MoJ) grading structure which sees them offered less than lawyers employed anywhere else in government, it has emerged.



Pressure has been such that the MoJ has agreed to a full review next year. A spokesman for the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) told the Gazette that a key complaint for legal advisers is that their tiered 'career structure' cannot be melded with the new pay system, meaning some qualified lawyers and barristers are being paid less than trainee solicitors.



But the main complaint from legal advisers is that, under the new system, they will be second-class citizens in terms of pay. The PCS confirmed that many legal advisers will fall in the pay band below other lawyers in government. Some 124 of the appeals were successful.



One legal adviser in training, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Gazette how the deal will leave her worse off than most: 'I was told that I would be allocated to [the lowest pay] band C... the same band as trainee solicitors,' she said. 'A barrister colleague was also allocated to this band. One of the trainee solicitors was put on [higher] band B.'



She added that the disparity between advisers and other government lawyers was 'double standards'. 'Legal advisers sit in court and advise the magistrates,' she said. 'I can see no reason why legal advisers should be graded in a lower band than those in other areas of the civil service.'



Nick McCarthy, senior national officer for law and justice at the PCS, said the union has 'major problems' with the way the advisers' career structure has been 'shoehorned' into the pay and grading system. 'We will be seeking root-and-branch changes to the structure and the pay system to ensure that legal advisers are properly rewarded,' he said.



An MoJ spokesman said: 'The roles lawyers across government undertake vary. Grading decisions for the different legal adviser tiers were taken carefully and ratified by grading panels based on the roles involved in each post.'