News - Middle East: Criminal lawyers in England and Wales are set to go on an indefinite, uninterrupted strike next month in a row with the United Kingdom government over jobs and pay, the country's Criminal Bar Association (CBA) has said. 

In a statement on Monday, the CBA announced that criminal barristers have voted for an all-out national starting on September 5, around the time when the new British Prime Minister is due to be announced.

The development comes as lawyers have been taking intermittent action for weeks, refusing to take on new cases or to accept responsibility for their colleagues’ cases, causing major disruption in the judiciary.

According to the CBA, almost 80 percent of the members who voted in favor of the strike had backed the idea of escalating the industrial action with an indefinite, uninterrupted strike.

The strike is expected to delay thousands of cases and result in a longer wait for justice for tens of thousands of people.

The protesting lawyers have asked for a 25 percent increase in pay for legal aid work, rejecting the government’s 15 percent pay offer, arguing that it would not kick in immediately or apply to existing cases.

Justice Minister Sarah Dines has hit back at the lawyers’ demands, saying that “the escalation of strike action is wholly unjustified considering we are increasing criminal barristers’ fees by 15 percent, which will see the typical barrister earn around 7,000 pounds more a year.”

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) previously said it had “repeatedly explained” to the CBA that backdating pay would require a “fundamental change” in how fees are paid.

“That reform would cost a disproportionate amount of taxpayers’ money and would take longer to implement, meaning barristers would have to wait longer for payment,” it added.