Doctors’ leaders and ministers are being urged to start formal pay talks after a breakthrough on a deal with other NHS staff in England. Unions for NHS staff, including nurses and ambulance workers, recommended on Thursday their members back a fresh offer of a 5% pay rise from April. But the British Medical Association (BMA) and government are not yet in talks to resolve the doctors’ dispute. Junior doctors in England took part in a three-day walkout earlier this week.
This offer, which is not yet a done deal, includes a one-off payment of at least £1,655 to recognize working through the pandemic. The 14 unions involved will now put it to their members to vote on, with the biggest three – the Royal College of Nursing, Unison, and the GMB – all backing the deal. But the Unite union has said it cannot recommend the offer but will put it to a vote and support the decision they make.
The junior doctors’ pay dispute is far from resolved with the BMA calling for a 35% pay rise, which it argues will reverse 15 years of cuts. The government made a last-minute offer of formal pay talks last Friday – three days before the walkout. However, the BMA rejected it, saying the pre-conditions were not acceptable. The government was only prepared to discuss pay for junior doctors for the next financial year along with the option of a one-off payment for the past year in return for calling off the strike action.
This was the same offer made to the unions acting on behalf of other NHS staff, according to sources. Following Thursday’s breakthrough, Health Secretary Steve Barclay called for the junior doctors to call off industrial action and enter into talks, saying the request for a 35% pay rise was “not affordable”. “We have offered the same terms to the junior doctors that were accepted by the other trade unions and that is what I hope the junior doctors will respond to,” he said.
Thursday’s pay offer now puts the onus on both sides in the doctors’ dispute to show willingness to get round the table. Letters have been exchanged in the past 24 hours between Mr. Barclay and the BMA but as yet no agreement has been reached on starting talks. Privately many observers are saying the biggest pressure is on the doctors. If other frontline NHS staff who are overall lower paid than junior doctors are willing to accept a 5% rise and a one-off payment of between £1,600 to £2,500 why should doctors hold out for 35% more, they are asking.
