FDA to ballot Scottish prosecutors for action - 21 November 2007

The FDA has today announced that it is to ballot for industrial action among its members in the Crown Office and Procurators Fiscal Service (COPFS). The action has been called following yet another failure by management to resolve a long-standing pay issue lasting over five years. The FDA is the union representing lawyers in the COPFS. The union has notified the employer of the ballot. Jim Caldwell, FDA Scottish Secretary, said: "An independent report by the consultants, Hay, in 2002 showed that lawyers in COPFS could legitimately be compared with lawyers working elsewhere within the Scottish Government. We have been trying to resolve this issue through negotiations for more than five years, but management has continually failed to address the matter. We believe it is imperative that lawyers in the COPFS are paid appropriately and fairly for the work they carry out and that there should be comparability, as identified by Hay, with lawyers working elsewhere in the Scottish Government. "COPFS management has failed to seriously address the issue over the years. Most recently they have failed in an internal review to work with the FDA to form a joint business case on reforming the pay/grading structure to take to Scottish Government ministers. Management signed up to producing a joint business case in April 2007 and it appears, from what we know of the conclusions, that it has no intention to fulfil its part of the agreement reached earlier in the year. "We have little confidence that our concerns over pay comparability are going to be addressed when the review is concluded, although we still wish to resolve the issue without recourse to industrial action." ### Notes for Editors 1. The FDA is the trade union and professional body representing 17,000 of the UK’s senior civil and public servants. Our members include policy advisors, senior managers, tax inspectors, economists, statisticians, accountants, special advisers, government lawyers, diplomats, crown prosecutors and NHS managers. 2. The FDA (formerly the First Division Association) should be referred to simply as "The FDA" and can be described as "the senior public servants’ union". 3. For further information contact: • Jim Caldwell, Scottish Secretary, tel: 07967 126778 • Oliver Rowe, Communications Officer, tel: 020 7401 5588 or 07751 366680.