A group of young lawyers has handed to the Bar Council a petition containing 4,254 signatures over the issue of the need for minimum pay for chambering students nationwide.
The group today also urged the Bar Council to rectify the issue of its ineffective mechanism for reporting sexual harassment within the legal fraternity.
A representative of the group, Goh Cia Yee handed the petition to Yusfarizal Yussoff, the chairperson of the Bar’s National Young Lawyers and Pupils Committee, at the Bar Council office in Kuala Lumpur this afternoon.
Other representatives of the group present were Joshua Moghana and Vincent Tan.
During a press conference afterward, Joshua urged the Bar to take seriously the issue of sexual harassment faced by young lawyers and chambering students.
He pointed out that this was because the Bar Council president last month had admitted that the Bar’s sexual misconduct reporting mechanism was suffering from a legal impediment.
"Sexual harassment is one of the biggest issues plaguing the legal industry, especially by young lawyers where they are thrown into an industry where seniority is a big deal.
"In 2007 during the Bar Council’s 59th AGM (Annual General Meeting), it adopted the sexual misconduct (reporting) mechanism.
"However, last month, the Bar president himself admitted that the mechanism was facing a legal impediment. It has been 13 years and only now they find out the mechanism is faulty?” Joshua asked.
He said the Bar should admit to sexual harassment victims that the mechanism is faulty so that the victims do not waste time trying to utilise the mechanism.
“I demand transparency from the Bar Council over the 2007 sexual reporting mechanism,” he said.
On Nov 30, Malaysiakini reported Bar Council president Salim Bashir admitting that the mechanism was ineffective due to a legal impediment.
Salim was also reported saying that per the Bar’s records, only one complaint was lodged with the Bar’s sexual misconduct reporting mechanism since 2007.
In regards to the possible reason that not many more have reported sexual harassment using the mechanism, Tan said it is due to a prevailing “culture of fear” that prevents victims from lodging reports.
He explained that this is particularly so if the situation involves chambering students and young lawyers being harassed by more senior legal practitioners.
“It is ironic that lawyers fight for other people’s rights but they could not fight for their own rights.
“This is because they are afraid that their own firm or own bosses would take action against them.
“Even asking people (lawyers) to come here today (press conference at the Bar Council) is hard due to the culture of fear.
“When we come back (after the press conference), we will receive our fair share of speech (criticising the young lawyers over the petition),” Tan said.
He added that this prevailing culture also resulted in the exploitation of chambering students through low pay, as seen by pupils being paid around RM400 a month in Pahang and RM700 a month in Kedah.
Hence, he said the petition demands that the Bar take steps to implement minimum pay for chambering pupils nationwide.
Veteran lawyer K A Ramu, who was present today to lend support to the young lawyers, reminded the Bar Council that they should show leadership over the issues.
The lawyer, who has over 20 years of experience, said the Bar Council’s newly elected committee members need to do so as young lawyers are the future of the industry.
“We need to show leadership as many young lawyers are coming into the industry,” he said, adding that more than 20,000 new lawyers from Peninsular Malaysia entered the sector recently.
Ramu also said the Bar needs to set minimum pay for chambering pupils nationwide, as many law firms have been known to make these pupils work long hours despite generally low pay.
"They (Bar and law firms) need to improve the welfare of young lawyers as they (young lawyers) are the backbone of the firms," he said.
Meanwhile, Tan also pointed out that the young lawyer's petition was also accessible online at change.org.
According to the online petition seeking minimum pay for chambering students, more than 4,300 signatures have been collected as of press time. - Mkini
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