‘Burnt out’ junior doctors threaten action over pay

JUNIOR doctors are threatening strike action over pay, with the British Medical Association (BMA) saying that unless its demands are met, it will ballot junior doctors in England for industrial action by early 2023 at the latest.

The BMA’S junior doctors committee made the announcement yesterday, ratifying a vote made by members last month. In 2016, hospitals experienced disruption as a result of the first strikes by junior doctors in 40 years.

Since then the BMA has made a number of threats but has not taken action.

Earlier this week, it emerged that delegates who will meet at their annual conference later this month have urged them to act on that ballot.

Last night, junior doctors set out calls for a major campaign to increase pay. The medics earn between £29,000 and £58,000, and are guaranteed at least a 2 per cent pay rise in 2022-23, as part of a multi-year pay deal agreed in 2019.

But the union said rising inflation meant their real-terms pay has fallen by 22 per cent since 2008, when tax and pension changes are taken into account.

The BMA said that if their demands for pay restoration are not met, they will begin preparations for a ballot of junior doctors in England for industrial action by early 2023 at the latest.

Dr Sarah Hallett and Dr Mike Kemp, BMA junior doctors committee cochairmen, said: “As their exhaustion and burnout levels have spiralled their take-home pay has declined by nearly a quarter in real terms since 2008-09.

Barristers are also threatening to go on strike in a move that would paralyse the court system.

The Criminal Bar Association, which has more than 2,500 members, is at odds with the Ministry of Justice over the issue of criminal legal aid rates.

Today a week-long ballot on a full strike begins with members asked to vote to approve an escalation of the work-to-rule action that has run for six weeks.

If passed, the strike would be the largest legal action in nearly a decade and halt trials in England and Wales.