Newsletter No. 28
NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2005
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Lawyers lose to long hours work culture The corrosive effects of hourly billing on law firms and their employees are well documented (ABA 2001-02). This has not stopped ‘leading’ international law firms recruiting young solicitors from increasing the ‘billable hours’ they need to work to 3,650 a year, ‘resulting in lawyers working twelve hours a day and still taking work home’ (Beyond billable hours for lawyers’ AFR 21.9.05). It is ironic that lawyers who, it would be imagined, could ably advocate their rights, so frequently have an inequitable and oppressive work culture. A 2005 survey of lawyers found seventy per cent felt they had been humiliated and eleven per cent that they had suffered discrimination in the last year (‘Bullying rife, survey finds’ AFR 15.7.05). There was also considerable discontent that in 2004-05 top tier managers gave themselves 16-32% salary increases while low and middle ranking staff scored increases of 4-8% (‘Young lawyers revolt over equal pay’ AFR 15.7.05) Law firms, like many corporate work spaces are stuck in a culture where being seen to work long hours is a sign of loyalty and seriousness — “flexible, or part-time hours are informally seen as a huge departure from the minimum requirements to do a good job — and a sure way of veering off the career track", despite formal procedures in place in many organisations to allow this (‘Ditch the myths about burning the midnight oil’ AFR 21.6.05). In this sort of culture women lawyers are afraid to work part-time because it is suggested that it alienates clients, thus hinders their work effectiveness and so, their career prospects. But recent research shows this is pretty much a myth — clients with part-time lawyers are generally happy: it is the employers themselves who use it as an excuse to maintain long hours of work (‘Bosses the barrier to law hours’ SMH 12-13.11.05). These are the conditions that prevail in an industry where many workers are highly paid professionals, but without unions to protect them and a competitive, rather than cooperative work ethos. What chance then do workers have in other industries where they are forced onto individual work agreements and denied union protection? |