The Gazette 1986

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GAZETTE JULY/AUGUST 1986
INCORPORATED LAW SOCIETY OF IRELAND GAZETTE
Vol. No. 80 No. 6 July/August 1986
In this issue . . .
Expediting Registrations in the Land
Registry 178
Tipperary Bar Association AGM 179
Professional Information 189
Executive Editor:
Editorial Board:
Advertising
Co-ordinator:
Printing:
Mary Buckley
Charles Meredith, Chairman
John F. Buckley
Gary Byrne
Geraldine Clarke
Michael V. O'Mahony
Maxwell Sweeney
Sean OhOisin. Tel. 305236
307860
Turner's Printing Co. Ltd., Longford
The views expressed in this publication, save where other-
wise indicated, are the views of the contributors and not
necessarily the views of the Council of the Society.
The appearance of an advertisement in this publication
does not necessarily indicate approval by the Society for
the product or service advertised.
Published at Blackhall Place, Dublin 7.
Comment . ..
. . . Unwelcome Publicity
The vast majority of practising solicitors have
been embarrassed yet again by a tiny minority of
colleagues who have been paying below the rates of pay
fixed by the Joint Labour Committee for Law Clerks. A
recent newspaper headline: "Lawyers top the list of law
breakers on minimum pay", unjustifiably leaves us all
feeling guilty. Who were those solicitors who, during
1985 and during earlier years also, topped or nearly
topped the list of employers in breach of Joint Labour
Committee Orders? The Law Society, over many years,
has indicated to the profession that it will treat the non-
payment of solicitors of these statutory minimum rates
of pay as being unprofessional and subject to
disciplinary action. Equally, over a number of years, the
Law Society has requested from the Department of
Labour the names of the defaulters ascertained by its
inspectorate, but the Department has always declined to
furnish that information, leaving the Law Society
impotent to take direct action against such defaulters.
That the number of solicitor/employers involved is
very small is self-evident. Apparently, in 1985, the
arrears of under-payments collected by the Department
of Labour from solicitors totalled just over £35,000 —
not a large sum taken in the context of the almost 1,400
firms of solicitors operating in the State.
It is certainly true that solicitors like many other self-
employed people are finding it hard to make ends meet
in the difficult times we are living in. However, that
cannot be an excuse for breaking the minimum pay
Order. If a solicitor cannot afford to pay at least the
legal minimum rates to his employees, he should
consider reducing the number of staff. Properly paid
staff are usually more willing and more productive and
thus more valuable.
Let us hope that 1985 will have been the last year that
solicitors will appear anywhere near the top of this
particular league table.
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