Junior doctors threaten more strikes if ministers don't return to pay talks now
Junior doctors are demanding an immediate resumption of pay talks with the Government to end the NHS strike misery at the end of its longest ever walkout.
The British Medical Association has threatened further industrial action if Health Secretary Victoria Atkins does not return to the negotiating table. It comes on the day Ms Atkins told the House of Commons: “If they come to the table with reasonable expectations, then I will sit down with them.”
Junior doctor leaders spoke to the Mirror on the final day of a six-day stoppage - the longest in the NHS's 75-year history - which ends at 7am on Tuesday. The junior doctors committee told the Mirror it is finalising plans to reballot in the next few weeks to extend its strike mandate which expires on February 29.
Co-chair Dr Vivek Trivedi described members’ “unwavering” commitment to more strikes if no acceptable new offer is tabled by ministers in the coming days and weeks. He said they could not rule out an even longer strike next, adding: “Unfortunately we have seen what happens when the mandate for strike action goes away. Strike action is the only language that the Government seems to understand because without a mandate for strike action we were ignored.
“And even now nurses, who are still in dispute with the Government about pay, they are being ignored, because they lost their mandate to strike. Striking is the only thing the Government responds to and something we’ve effectively been forced in to.”
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During the last round of negotiations Government halted talks, citing its condition that negotiations could not continue once the BMA had scheduled future strikes. The BMA expects talks to continue whilst it ballots to extend junior doctors’ strike mandate. Despite this ballot, no more strikes will be scheduled unless the junior doctors committee decides insufficient progress is being made in talks.
Co-chair Dr Rob Laurenson said: “We believe that talks can continue during strike action. That's been proven by other unions like those representing Tube drivers and criminal barristers. That is the Government's decision but it keeps collapsing talks, pushing us out of the room and blaming us which is not a very collaborative way to work. It's quite a toxic behaviour.”
On Monday the BMA said it had not yet received another invite for talks in advance of the strike ending. During the 144-hour walkout Ms Atkins repeatedly claimed she would be ready to restart talks “in 20 minutes” if junior doctors called off strikes. Dr Laurenson said: “We’re expecting an invitation [for talks] at the latest 7.20am.”
In a statement to Parliament on Monday, Ms Atkins said: “It is time for the junior doctors committee to show that they're serious about doing a deal. They have legitimate concerns about their working lives, and a fair and reasonable deal can be reached. But calling damaging strikes is not the way to achieve this.
“Earlier this week, I said that if they pulled off the damaging strike action I’d be around the table in 20 minutes. I am of course extremely disappointed that they have refused for and continue to refuse the offer because of course the strikes are ongoing as we speak. But if they come to the negotiating table with reasonable expectations I will sit down with them.”
Last summer the Government awarded junior doctors in England an average rise of 8.8%, but the BMA said the increase was still a real terms pay cut for many medics. They are looking for a longer term commitment to address 15 years of below-inflation awards.
The Mirror can reveal the junior doctors committee has benchmarked inflation of 11.4% which was the Retail Price Index measure at the end of the 2022/23 financial year. RPI has since fallen to 5.3%. The committee says any 2022/23 pay rise offer from Government below 11.4% would be another real-terms pay cut and rejected. It is looking for a multi-year commitment to above-inflation pay awards - similar to that agreed in Scotland - to return real-terms pay to 2008 levels.
Dr Laurenson said: “We're happy to have a multi-year deal… we're not asking for it all in one go. We're very happy to have a long term plan. What I would say is that the Government should try and look beyond their own nose at what it's going to take to end this dispute. Look at the bigger picture and the long term retention crisis we have in the NHS.”
Between 2008-9 and 2021-22, pay for junior doctors had fallen by 26% once rising costs are taken into account. The BMA says that to reverse that drop would now take a 35% increase.
Dr Trivedi said: “It's a shame the Government has wasted so much time in trying to resolve our dispute. We've shown our willingness to achieve a deal which can be worked on creatively and span a number of years and what we've seen in return is continued contempt.”
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FullFact states first-year junior doctors in England earn about £15.50 an hour in basic pay while the average junior doctor earned £44,500 last year. The BMA says NHS doctors’ pay is poor by international standards and many new recruiting are moving to work in countries such as Australia and New Zealand. The new year strike has seen several NHS trusts declare critical incidents.
Ms Atkins said in the Commons: "I don't believe it is right to negotiate with unions whilst they are being unreasonable, and some of their members are walking out of hospitals at the busiest and most challenging time of year for patients. And I remind the House that the junior doctors committee's headline demand of a 35% pay rise is simply unaffordable for taxpayers." She added: “We need to find a fair and reasonable solution to this, but I will not do this whilst the junior doctors committee is maintaining strike action.”
Junior doctors in Northern Ireland are being balloted for the first time over potential strike action while junior doctors in Wales are set to stage a 72-hour walk out from Monday January 15. Junior doctors in Scotland settled their pay dispute last summer after getting an above-inflation settlement and a three-year commitment to real terms pay rises.
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