Plans Afoot for the Strike with the Least Public Sympathy.

 Yes Barristers, that lowly minimum-wage-earning bunch of workers, those workers in desperate need of a wage rise are going on Strike.

I'm sorry, but I've no sympathy with barristers. Yes, they earn about the same as me when they are starting, then it just rises as they get more experience.

Barristers, especially new ones are complaining that the unpaid time they put into cases means that they could actually be earning minimum wage.

But they are self-employed, so there is no "employer" as such. It's the same in most professions that you actually put more time in than you book out, because eventually you get experience and then start to earn the big bucks. 

Most professions are like this. That's what a profession is, what being a professional is. The same applies to doctors. Junior doctors put the hours in to get the experience and eventually earn the big money as a specialist, or in the case of General Practice sit around drinking tea and avoid seeing anyone.

Most managers in companies will tell you they put more hours in than they actually get paid for. It's part of the job. Hopefully there are other benefits that are worth the extra hours.

When I was working self-employed as an I.T. consultant, I put the hours in. I didn't book all of the hours I worked. I worked most nights until 7pmto get the experience and get the job done. When I was an I.T. manager, it was the same: I was on call virtually 24/7 and worked longer hours than my salary was calculated for.

That's what independent professionals do. 

What Barristers are asking for, is essentially a degrading of their job status from professional to salaried or hourly wage worker. 

A bit like the incessant move from all angles including the HMRC to class EVERYONE as salaried or hourly wage workers, rather than independent self-employed contractors. 

IR35, the rules introduced by Blair's Labour Party that decimated the I.T. industry, then went through media and now are buggering up the NHS.

The targeting of independent specialist nurses and doctors in the NHS in the past two years of course has nothing to do with the staff shortages the NHS is experiencing right now. No, can't be that an exodus of Nurses to private health care, or Health Care abroad has occurred leaving the NHS starved of staff.

Anyway, I digress. Barristers are the last people that should be striking. They are comparatively well-paid and (if they do well and put the hours in) have the ability to earn well above the average wage.

Strike away, but you won't get my support and I suspect you won't get the support of the majority of the public either..