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Article

20 Mar 2020

Author:
Monidipa Fouzder, The Law Society Gazette

Legal sector trade union alleges lowest paid staff are being forced to work in offices despite COVID-19 guidance

“Coronavirus: legal trade union threatens action”, 17 March 2020

[The Legal Sector Workers United (LSWU)],…resenting [persons] in the legal sector, has threatened legal action should any of its members…be sanctioned for responding reasonably to the coronavirus pandemic. The…LSWU, a branch within the United Voices of the World Union, published an open letter in which it makes three demands to legal sector employers: full pay for employees,…transparency…about Covid-19 [policies]…[and encouraging]…work from home.

LSWU says [that]…“[it] will not hesitate to avail ourselves and our members of any and all legal remedies should they be subjected to any unlawful sanction…”. The LSWU also said it had been mapping law firms’ response to the virus across the sector and found that while partners are working from home, the lowest paid staff are being forced to come into the office.

In a tweet posted on Tuesday, the group said: "This is an outrage. We are organising against this classist allocation of risk, which is an abuse of legal sector workers".