Prime
Set minimum wage for junior lawyers
When lay people meet junior lawyers out there smartly dressed and holding legit brief cases, they cannot help but admire the legal profession.
By junior lawyers, I refer to fresh graduates, lawyers who hold low-ranking positions at the different places of employment, lawyers yet to enroll as advocates, those yet to start their own law firms, among others.
The attraction of high salaries may draw a lot of people to law, but the reality is quite different. There is no doubt that their remuneration at some workplaces is quite disheartening.
With the exception of a few, many law firms in Uganda pay quite embarrassing salaries to these lawyers. It does not make sense for a person to spend five years or more training to become a lawyer, only to be paid the same wage as a cleaner! Some senior lawyers never get to pay them at all, with the rhetoric of gaining legal experience.
Uganda Law Society (ULS), in 2017, gave green light to the Minimum Wage Bill currently before Parliament, arguing that it would greatly help in minimising the exploitation of workers in Uganda. That was quite impressive! Our Parliament is yet to pass the said Bill, though.
Could the ULS pay specific attention to the exploitative salaries of junior lawyers too? In the circumstances, one could place lawyers in the ‘workers’ category, but still, in the event that the Bill is passed, a set national minimum wage would not be commensurate with the qualifications of a lawyer. The ‘learned friends’ might require their own minimum, after all.
In my opinion, ULS should recommend a minimum wage for junior lawyers. The body should have a minimum salary fixed by law, clearly specifying a ‘decent’ amount below which an employer should not pay the staff.
Uganda’s medical workers have complained of low wages for years with the help of the Uganda Medical Association, it would seem ironic for the legal fraternity, as veterans of advocacy, to remain silent about the exploitation of junior lawyers.
In Nigeria, a similar proposal for setting up a minimum wage for junior lawyers was tabled.
The Nigerian Bar Association recommended setting up a Welfare Monitoring Committee to give effect to a proposed minimum wage for young lawyers (N50,000 or Shs500,000) in a bid to improve their welfare.
If ULS successfully thought of The Advocates ( Remuneration and Taxation of Costs) Rules, S.I 267- 4, which were further amended this year with much juicier legal fees for advocates, it should think of a regulation of sorts with respect to the minimum salary for lawyers. The same should be subject to revision, having regard to the rate of inflation and cost of living in a specific period of time.
Vivian Namale
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