The leaders of a trade union for lawyers established in New Zealand last year say its numbers are growing rapidly as the firm campaigns to ensure young lawyers are not underpaid.

The Aotearoa Legal Workers' Union was formed in February 2019 to represent lawyers and other workers in the legal workplace. It aims to stop what it says is the "unfair treatment" of younger lawyers and to represent marginalized groups of legal workers, including women, people in the LGBTQ+ community, people of color, the disabled and New Zealand's indigenous people, the Maori.

Aotearoa is the Maori name for New Zealand.

Some 750 members joined in its first six months and co-president Hayley Coles said membership is increasing rapidly as it gets its minimum wage campaign underway.

"Numbers are growing more and more quickly as we complete our first round of presentations at workplaces, ramp up our first campaign and word spreads about the progress we are making," she said.

New Zealand has about 14,000 lawyers, but about a quarter are partners or barristers, so as employers are ineligible for membership, Coles said.

The union is in the midst of its minimum wage campaign to ensure staff are paid for working overtime and that employers comply with minimum wage laws.

"ALWU is working towards fair recognition of and remuneration for work done. ALWU understands the need for long hours when there are tight deadlines, but that should be occasional, not consistent," said Coles. "When long hours are required, staff should also be adequately compensated for that additional time."

The union wants firms to introduce time recording practices and monitoring systems to identify breaches of New Zealand's Minimum Wage Act and top up staff salaries.

Its activities are being watched with interest in Australia, where pay and long hours for young lawyers is also a significant issue.

Several Australian law firms have undertaken or are undertaking reviews of staff pay to ensure they comply with the Legal Services Award, which sets out minimum rates of pay for lawyers in Australia.

Global law firm Ashurst was the most recent firm to be embroiled in a broad pay controversy, when it said last month it is making back payments to some junior staff after a review last year revealed they had been underpaid.

The underpayment came about as some of the staff worked long hours, particularly during the government-initiated Royal Commission into misconduct by banks and other financial institutions, which reduced the hourly pay rate for those staff.

In New Zealand, Coles said there is a shift among some lawyers in the perception that long hours are necessary to win promotion.

"Most young lawyers know that the hours they have to work will depend on the firm and the team they are in. However, understanding that is different from accepting it as a necessity in order to advance their careers," she said. "While some lawyers want to work long hours or are willing to do so for parts of their careers, many are increasingly less willing to do so—at least without fair remuneration."

She said there was also an increasing awareness of the need for time off work in the evenings and weekends for mental health and well-being. While some young lawyers actively seek firms with more regular hours, not everyone has that choice, she said.

Some lawyers were initially reluctant to join the union, but Coles said that more are joining as some of the larger firms start making changes in response to the ALWU's advocacy, such as giving staff back pay when they would have otherwise been working for less than the minimum wage.

Membership of ALWU is also anonymous unless the person wishes to tell their employer of their membership.

"ALWU is not telling its members not to work hard or to leave at 5p.m. ALWU wants employers to recognize the value of the work done by their staff, to compensate them for it, and to encourage them to go home at a reasonable time if there is nothing urgent for them to be doing," Coles said.

Law firms have responded well to the union and all the firms it has approached have been willing to meet them and discuss issues, Coles said. "Firms have also allowed us to give presentations to their staff about ALWU and an introduction to ALWU is now part of induction for interns and graduates at some firms," she said.

The union and firms have also discussed bullying and harassment policies and representation of junior staff in decision-making processes.

Coles works four days a week as a solicitor at Gaze Burt, a medium-sized Auckland law firm, and devotes the fifth to her role at the union.

Her co-president, Morgan Evans, works as a litigator at a large national firm. Coles said the firm supports Evans working for ALWU in his spare time.