Legal Aid lawyers’ salaries to be harmonized by October deadline

The Executive Director of the Legal Aid Scheme Mr Yahaya Alhassan Seini, has assured that barring any hitch, lawyers of the scheme would be brought aboard the Single Spine Salary Structure by the end of October.

Lawyers of the scheme in the Northern Region, were very recently reported to have threatened a strike by the end of October, accusing government of ignoring their petitions over the years to harmonize their salaries, and review their conditions of service.

Speaking on the sidelines of the launch of Legal Aid Week on Tuesday, the Executive Director of the scheme said he had been assured that the Controller and Account General’s Department had been directed to, and was taking steps to bring the lawyers’ salaries at par with other lawyers.

“Yes they ought to have been brought on board [the single spine] like the others as at the end of last month, but the idea is that the Accountant General is working out the system to ensure that everybody is brought on board. So sooner than later, hopefully legal aid lawyers will be on the same level as their counterparts and colleagues in the other sectors of the justice delivery system”, Mr Seini said.

He added that the only reason for the threats was because the Controller and Accountant General’s efforts to harmonize their salaries had not materialized yet.

By Emmanuel Odonkor