SURVEY: 'cheap labour' allegation comes amid concerns about job security and status


Paralegals are paid 'peanuts' by law firms, with some working for no pay on false promises of future training contracts, new research has revealed.



A survey by the Young Legal Aid Lawyers (YLAL) group found that six out of ten paralegals complained that, although they did similar work to trainees and even solicitors, they lacked job security and status and were not given equal facilities, training, supervision or pay.



YLAL chairwoman Laura Janes said: 'The use of paralegals as cheap labour is endemic in the post-Carter legal aid sector. The results of this survey are shocking: the low levels of pay and strong sense that many paralegals felt undervalued and exploited must trigger firm and urgent action.'



One former paralegal who responded to the survey said: 'Pay is appalling. Firms pay peanuts, but not for monkeys: they get much more than their money's worth.'



Another described a 'work experience scheme' of three months' unpaid work followed by three months' paid work - except the firm reneged on the agreement and refused to pay him for the second three months.



A third respondent was one of three applicants for a training contract. The firm wanted all three to work unpaid for some months, after which one of them 'might be selected, while the other two would leave with nothing'.



Penny Mackinder, acting manager of the Legal Aid Practitioners Group, said the Carter reforms had dragged legal services back to the 19th century, when her great-grandfather entered the profession. 'In those days you weren't paid as you trained - on the contrary, you paid the firm a "premium". Entry to the profession was the preserve of the wealthy. We've now gone full circle, with only people of means able to take on what are essentially unpaid internships.'



James O'Connell, chief executive of the Institute of Paralegals, said: 'The survey's findings are depressingly familiar. Firms in the world of legal aid are working with wafer-thin margins and are treating paralegals as cheap labour out of economic necessity, not greed.'



Janes added that YLAL had drawn up a list of recommendations including a minimum salary scheme for paralegals. She called on the Law Society and the Legal Services Commission to take urgent action to ensure that the workforce on which the future of legal aid depended is fairly treated.



Jonathan Rayner