KUALA LUMPUR: A group of young lawyers today highlighted a “culture of fear” during pupilage which is preventing young lawyers from speaking up on issues of low pay and sexual harassment.
The group served a petition with 4,254 signatures to Yusfarizal Yusoff, the chairperson of the National Young Lawyers & Pupils Committee (NYLPC) today, in an effort to pressure the Malaysian Bar to implement a form of minimum pay or remuneration for pupils.
Pupilage is a mandatory nine-month training requirement for law graduates seeking to enter the legal profession, and allowances can vary from RM400 in Pahang to RM2,000 in the Klang Valley.
However, the pupils are not classified as employees under the Employment Act. The pupils also need their Pupil Master to sign their Certificate of Diligence before they are called to the Bar, which the group says is leaving them beholden to senior lawyers and open to labour exploitation and sexual advances.
“Pupils are not given the respect they deserve,” said young lawyer Goh Cia Yee during a press conference outside the Malaysian Bar.
“While it’s a given fact that we have to respect seniors and those who have spent 10, 20 years in the profession, what about the people who work for you for 24 hours, sometimes on weekends and public holidays?
“What about those people who are cracking their backs to provide the revenue which your firms are enjoying?”
Goh, who started the petition for minimum pay, said pupils had “no right to take leave” without permission from the Bar. He also said those wanting to apply for sick leave had to write in for permission from the Bar.
Another young lawyer, Vince Tan, explained that the Covid-19 pandemic had made it harder for young lawyers to secure jobs.
Nevertheless, Tan said it was important the group used the pandemic to highlight the issues of exploitation, overwork, low pay and sexual harassment
“It’s ironic that lawyers are fighting for other people’s rights but cannot defend their own,” he said.
“Why? Because they are afraid their bosses will take action against them. Even mobilising people to come here to speak out and have their faces on TV (is hard)… There is a culture of fear. The culture of fear is there.
“I can confirm that after this when we go back, we will receive our fair share of hate speech and online bullying… But there is no choice. We have to move forward with these issues,” he said.
Another young lawyer, Joshua Moghana Sundaram, said it was “a fact” that sexual harassment was one of the biggest issues plaguing the legal industry.
While he was unable to provide an exact number, he said young lawyers were the most affected by sexual harassment because they operated in a profession where seniority “is such a big deal”.
Sundaram noted that the Malaysian Bar had last month admitted that its mechanism to deal with sexual misconduct, which was adopted in 2007, was faulty – with just one report lodged in the last 13 years.
Accompanying the young lawyers at the press conference was KA Ramu, a criminal lawyer with more than 20 years of experience.
Stressing that sexual harassment and low allowances were the two main issues facing young lawyers, Ramu called on better leadership by senior lawyers to address these problems.
“There are many young lawyers coming into this profession… And some legal firms are doing very well thanks to the work of these young lawyers,” he said.
“These firms should not (just) think about profits. Don’t be a typical capitalist.”
Ramu also noted that pupils needed their Pupil Master to sign their Certificate of Diligence before they were called to the Bar, failing which they would effectively jeopardise their careers.
“If they don’t sign this certificate, they won’t be called to the Bar – so there is always this fear factor (against speaking up),” he said. - FMT
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