29 jobs avert solicitors' strike

All industrial action by legal staff at the Chief State Solicitor's Office has been called off after the Department of Finance…

All industrial action by legal staff at the Chief State Solicitor's Office has been called off after the Department of Finance agreed to create 29 posts, and provide better career structures and extra resources.

An extra 15 solicitors are to be appointed, bringing the total number to 65, with 12 support staff.

Solicitors and legal technical staff, members of IMPACT, had been engaged in a work to rule which threatened to disrupt the courts.

IMPACT's assistant general secretary, Mr David Hughes, said yesterday that the extra staff "will go a long way to ease the chronic understaffing in the office." Several independent assessments had already confirmed the need for extra staff, he added.