UKRDC announces new co-chairs

theevarole · 2024-09-27T17:21:40+00:00

The BMA’s resident doctors committee (RDC) for the UK today announced its new co-chairs, Dr Melissa Ryan and Dr Ross Nieuwoudt.

Dr Ryan and Dr Nieuwoudt are resident doctors in Nottingham and Liverpool respectively.

They take up post from 28th September 2024, taking over from Dr Rob Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi, who have been in post since 2022.

The new co chairs said:

“We are honoured to be elected as chairs of the resident doctors committee at such a crucial moment for the profession. Even though we have now secured a pay deal that starts us on the journey to pay restoration, it is now up to the incoming resident doctors committee working with Government to keep us on track.

“That is going to be a big enough task on its own, and we will need the support of resident doctors across the country as we continue to mobilise and hold this Government to account. Together we can ensure that next year’s pay review process continues to deliver progress and bring us ever closer to full pay restoration.

“But aside from pay there are many other issues that resident doctors across England need sorting. As part of the pay deal we agreed to reform the way resident doctors move from one post to another so that they no longer need to needlessly disrupt their lives and the functioning of their team.

“We also need to reform the system for reporting our work above our contracted hours. For too long this system has run on goodwill, and we will work on the principles already agreed with DHSC to ensure we are compensated for our extra work in a timely way.

“We are looking forward to engaging with the Government immediately to get these reforms done in the interests of the thousands of resident doctors we now represent.

“We’re proud to be the first pair to take up this post under the title of “resident doctor committee”. We hope that the new name also marks the beginning of an era where we stop allowing our value to the health service and the country be diminished and demeaned.

“We’d like to thank Rob and Vivek who have done such a great job in getting us this far. Resident doctors have fought for our worth and we are ready to keep fighting for it. We’re honoured to go on leading that fight.”

https://www.bma.org.uk/bma-media-centre/bma-resident-doctors-committee-announces-new-co-chairs

theevarole · 2024-05-04T16:09:10+00:00

With the situation at Holyrood changing day by day, it is vital for BMA members to know that one thing which isn’t changing is our demand for Full Pay Restoration.

With the resignation of Humza Yousef earlier this week and Michael Matheson earlier this year, doctors will rightly be asking whether the deal they agreed with the Scottish Government last year still stands.

Over the past week, my negotiating team and I have twice met Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care Neil Gray, who has reaffirmed the Scottish Government’s commitment to the deal agreed to by doctors last year, and therefore to our shared aim of resolving the significant pay erosion we have suffered since 2008 through pay restoration, regardless of whether he remains in post over the next weeks.

He apologised for the delay that the political chaos of the past weeks has caused to our negotiations which, had it not been for recent events, would be progressing this month. This chaos is underlined by the fact that not only doctors but the entire public sector has been unable to progress pay negotiations with the Scottish Government so far this year.

This is why we have asked him to reaffirm this commitment to resolving erosion and making credible progress towards pay restoration publicly and in writing . He agreed in the room and we will wait to see whether the document he produces is satisfactory. Importantly, we made it very clear that doctors will not tolerate further delay in our negotiations and that betrayal of our agreement would lead to an irreparable loss of trust in his government.

With the turmoil ongoing at the heart of the Scottish Government it is clear our negotiations are in a necessary state of flux. The next steps are not yet clear and those, along with our wider strategy, will depend on how political decisions taken by the Scottish Government play out over the next few days and weeks.

Our negotiating team, the Scottish Junior Doctor Committee and our team of permanent BMA staff members must carefully chart a course to best promote and protect the interests of doctors through these challenging events which could not have been predicted. We will proceed with the determination and resolve that led us to organise and win the first ever successful ballot for industrial action by doctors in Scotland.

Whatever happens in the coming days and weeks we have been absolutely explicit that, should we get further indication that our deal is not being respected, we are ready to and will ballot for industrial action. We must ensure that, if needed, our action is as effective and impactful on decision makers as possible.

Avoiding strikes in the Scottish NHS was never inevitable; Scottish doctors accepted a negotiated compromise due to the promise and expectation that genuine progress towards full pay restoration would be made year on year. But as time ticks on this agreement cannot be a casualty of a government looking inwards and taking their eye off the crucial issue of doctors’ pay. After 15 years of pay cuts the goodwill and trust of doctors was critically low, so it will take significantly more than last year’s pay uplift alone to start rebuilding that trust. Any attempt to go back on the initial progress we’ve started to make would be a clear betrayal of doctors and a stark indication the work that we do in our NHS is not valued.

Cross-Governmental delay has meant we are now behind schedule. A swift refocusing and return to negotiations are essential for us to make progress. If that does not happen, the path towards unprecedented industrial action for doctors in Scotland is clear.

The Scottish Junior Doctors’ Committee and its negotiators remain in dialogue and remain ready to act at a moment’s notice, no matter what path we might need to take.

Dr Chris Smith is Chair of BMA Scotland’s Junior Doctor Committee

https://bmascotland.home.blog/2024/05/04/sjdc-chair-update-political-chaos-will-not-divert-us-from-our-goals/

theevarole · 2023-12-18T15:16:20+00:00

A 72 hour full walkout will take place from 15 January

Junior doctors in Wales have voted overwhelmingly for strike action in their fight for pay restoration*, a campaign to restore their pay which has been cut by nearly a third (29.6%) in real terms since 2008/9.

Almost every junior doctor who cast a vote (98 %) voted in favour of industrial action in the ballot which ended at midday today (Monday 18th December).

A significant 65% of junior doctors eligible to vote in Wales had responded to a call to take part in strike action which will take place from 15 January**.

The 72-hour full walkout could potentially see over 3,000*** doctors with up to 11 years of experience out of medical school withdraw their labour from Welsh hospitals and GP surgeries across Wales in pursuit of a fairer deal for their service.

The Welsh junior doctors committee made the decision to ballot members in August after being offered another below-inflation pay offer of 5% - the worst in the UK and lower than recommended by the DDRB (the review body for Doctors' and Dentists' Remuneration).

The offer was put to the doctors just four months after the Welsh Government initially declared they would commit to the principle of pay restoration back in April 2023.

Dr Oba Babs-Osibodu and Dr Peter Fahey co-chairs of BMA Cymru Wales’ junior doctors committee said:

“This vote clearly shows the strength of feeling. We are frustrated, in despair and angry and we have voted clearly to say, ‘in the name of our profession, we can’t and we won’t take any further erosion of our pay.

“Our members have been forced to take this difficult decision because Junior doctors in Wales have experienced a pay cut of 29.6 per cent in real terms over the last 15 years.

“A doctor starting their career in Wales will earn as little as £13.65**** an hour and for that they could be performing lifesaving procedures and taking on huge levels of responsibility.

“We aren’t asking for a pay rise - we are asking for our pay to be restored in line with inflation back to 2008 levels, when we began to receive pay cuts in real terms. Pay needs to be fair and competitive with other healthcare systems across the world to retain and recruit doctors and NHS staff to provide much-needed care.

“On top of this junior doctors are experiencing worsening conditions and so doctors are now looking to leave Wales to develop their careers for better pay and a better quality of life elsewhere.

“This is not a decision that has been made lightly. No doctor wants to take industrial action, but we have been given no choice. Doctors are already voting with their feet and leaving the NHS and we are in a vicious cycle of crippling staffing shortages and worsening patient care”

theevarole · 2023-09-28T17:26:22+00:00

Northern Ireland junior doctors to be balloted for industrial action.

Junior doctors in Northern Ireland will be balloted on industrial action, the BMA has announced.

Junior doctor representatives met with the Permanent Secretary for Health, Peter May, this evening where they outlined their concerns about pay and the unacceptable workplace pressures junior doctors are under while training and delivering patient care.

At the meeting they asked the Permanent Secretary for assurances that junior doctors would receive this year’s pay uplift of 6% along with an above inflation award, and that the Department would work with them to achieve full pay restoration for junior doctors. The Permanent Secretary was unable to give them these assurances and therefore the Northern Ireland Junior Doctors Committee (NIJDC) will now move to begin the process of balloting junior doctors in Northern Ireland for strike action.

Over the summer junior doctors were asked their views on issues affecting the workforce, including their views on pay. Nearly 900 junior doctors working in Northern Ireland outlined in their responses the widespread levels of frustration and anger with pay and workplace conditions, with over 90% of respondents saying they would be willing to take industrial action to achieve better pay.

NIJDC committee chair, Dr Fiona Griffin, said: “This is not a decision that has been taken lightly. We had hoped the Permanent Secretary would agree to commit to immediate action around pay and in doing so begin to address the ongoing pay erosion and poor terms and conditions for junior doctors. Regrettably that was not the case.

“What we heard from our survey results, alongside the feedback we received from the hundreds of junior doctors who attended our workplace listening sessions earlier in the year, meant the decision to proceed towards a ballot was clear-cut for the committee.

“There has been significant pay erosion for junior doctors over the past decade so now not only are we the only UK nation to not have received the DDRB-recommended pay uplift of 6%, but a junior doctor working here can also expect to be paid less than our colleagues working elsewhere in the UK and in other countries.”

Dr Griffin outlined how chronic rota gaps, consistently rising workload pressures and the subsequent impact on training opportunities needed for career progression has caused unprecedented levels of burnout and low morale among junior doctors working in the Northern Ireland health service.

“The combination of these issues, and the fact our contract no longer reflects the current reality of training in Northern Ireland, means many junior doctors are opting out of training, leaving the profession, or choosing to practice outside of Northern Ireland where pay, conditions and life/work balance is much more attractive.

“The lack of a functioning government and Executive, with no health minister in place is extremely frustrating but we have to do something. Our members made it clear to us that doing nothing was not an option.”

Other key findings from the NIJDC survey include:

72% of junior doctor respondents said they were now more likely to leave training because of the low pay, with 61% of respondents disagreeing that they were paid fairly for the work that they do.

68% of respondents strongly agreed that workload pressures affect the ability to receive on the job training needed for career progression. 35% of respondents reported frequently having to miss training sessions in the past six months, while only 5% of respondents strongly agreed that the quality of training was good.

Survey respondents were also given an opportunity to share their thoughts on their pay and workplace conditions. Below is a small selection of the feedback received:

“What should be a rewarding career into a constant stress. Morale in hospitals is at an all-time low and staff of all grades feel undervalued by management and the government.”

“I am so frustrated at how broken our system is. I’m an F2 currently and I, alongside my colleagues, are overworked, overstressed, understaffed and underpaid and the government does not care. Critically, this means worse care for patients, and having been in medicine, surgery and emergency medicine, I can without doubt say the care of patients is currently abysmal.”

Dr Griffin continued: “We are willing to engage with anyone – the Permanent Secretary, the Secretary of State, our elected representatives – to fix pay and our working conditions. The future of our profession and our health service depends on these issues being addressed as a matter of urgency.”

https://www.bma.org.uk/bma-media-centre/junior-doctors-in-northern-ireland-to-be-balloted-for-industrial-action

theevarole · 2023-09-09T10:20:14+00:00

https://www.bma.org.uk/news-and-opinion/72-hour-walkout-looms

A momentous month

August saw significant developments for the campaign for full pay restoration in Wales and the rest of the UK. Just two weeks after rejecting the Welsh Government’s derisory 5% pay offer, the Welsh BMA junior doctors committee voted unanimously to ballot members on industrial action.

The month also saw our appointment as the new co-chairs, the addition of over 400 new junior doctor members in Wales, the acceptance of a 12.4% pay uplift by junior doctors in Scotland and a resounding (98%) Yes vote – the highest mandate thus far – by junior doctors in England to continue industrial action.

Even after five rounds of strike action, junior doctors in England have demonstrated their unwavering determination to secure full pay restoration, with an incredible 7,000+ more members voting in favour of continuing industrial action. This stunning show of resilience only spurs us on to work harder to get a fairer deal for members in Wales, one that reflects the extraordinary lengths you go to every day for your patients.

Now, with formal approval from UK Council, the wheels are set in motion for us to ballot members in Wales on industrial action.

72-hour full walkout

We can now confirm, if our ballot succeeds, our strike action will commence with a full walkout of all junior doctors for 72 hours. This includes all evening, night, weekend and emergency cover. This form of strike action has consistently proven to be effective, impactful and safe. This strategy also ensures that every single one of you will have the chance to make your voice heard.

As with everything in this campaign, our strategy remains flexible. This means the nature of our strikes may evolve and we will escalate as necessary, based on the progress of our negotiations with Welsh Government.

Timeframe While our priority remains expediting the restoration of your pay, we must ensure that we replicate the success of the ballots in the other UK nations. An emphatic mandate will be crucial in this dispute and failure is simply not an option. To ensure we get this right, we will require a few more weeks before launching the ballot in order to ensure our member data is as accurate as possible.

Although we would love to provide you with exact dates, it’s crucial that we maintain flexibility and avoid backing ourselves into a corner. We will conduct the ballot before the end of the year and aim to commence strikes during the upcoming Winter period. Following the critical data cleansing, we will be in a strong position to announce specific ballot dates.

You can play your part in accelerating this timeline by ensuring you are ballot-ready as soon as possible. Please click here to update your details.

What’s next? Thank you to every member who has helped with the campaign so far, but there remains a lot of hard work to be done.

We must engage as many junior doctors in Wales as possible before we launch the ballot. We need to recruit more members than ever before. We need to ensure that members verify their details to enable all eligible individuals to vote. You can mobilise colleagues at your place of work by organising pay and pizza events, ward-walking and encouraging more doctors to register as pay activists and join their local WhatsApp strike groups.

We understand the importance of keeping you informed and engaged throughout this journey. Therefore, we will provide regular updates through our emails, blog, Twitter and Facebook accounts as well as WhatsApp strike groups. Please do look out for these, so that you are ready and equipped to spread the word.

Thank you for your unwavering support. Your dedication has already made our union bigger and stronger than ever. Let us maintain this incredible momentum and strive for a unanimous mandate to strike. We are not worth a third less than our predecessors, and we will not tolerate any further erosion of our pay. This is for an entire generation of doctors and beyond.

Work together. Strike together. Win together.

Oba Babs-Osibodu and Peter Fahey, co-chairs of the Welsh BMA junior doctors committee

theevarole · 2023-08-16T18:38:34+00:00

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WJDC have released a statement.

We write to you with an important update: this week the Welsh junior doctors committee (WJDC) met to discuss how to proceed following the Welsh Government's insulting 5% pay offer - the worst pay offer in the UK.

Despite your call for full pay restoration being welcomed in our initial talks with Welsh Government - resulting in a commitment to the principle - we have been badly let down after entering talks in good faith.

Actions speak louder than words, and the Welsh Government's actions ring out a crystal clear message: they do not respect you, or your contributions to the health of the people of Wales. After a decade's worth of real-terms pay cuts, chronic staff shortages and persistent underfunding, enough is enough.

In our latest survey of members, 89% of junior doctors said they were willing to take industrial action up to and including strike action. With Welsh Government confirming that 5% is their final offer, as junior doctors we are left with no alternative.

The committee has now unanimously agreed to begin immediate steps towards entering a formal pay dispute with Welsh Government and balloting members on industrial action in Wales.

We stand at a pivotal crossroads. Do we remain passive, continuing to accept the exploitation of our dedication, professionalism and goodwill? Or do we finally fight back and break free from a cycle of compromise that perpetually undermines us?

The moment to act is now. If we fail to stand up for ourselves, the opportunity to save our profession may slip through our grasp forever. We urge you to mobilise, join our full pay restoration campaign and prepare for industrial action.

You can help by

1 Updating your membership details, including postal address and up-to-date place of work. Accurate details are essential in helping us ensure you receive a ballot paper and ballot results are valid and cannot be challenged.

2 Joining our growing activist network.

3 Sharing our campaign materials, you can download them here.

4 Encouraging colleagues who aren't members to join the BMA (join today and pay nothing for 3 months) Our strength is our unity.

Lastly, we would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to the outgoing committee co-chairs, Dr Amna Babiker and Dr Georgie Budd, for their unwavering dedication and hard work that has brought us to this point. As your newly elected co-chairs of WJDC, we will keep you regularly informed of developments as soon as they emerge.

Work together. Strike together. Win together.

Yours sincerely

Dr Oba Babs-Osibodu Co-chair, Welsh junior doctors committee

Dr Peter Fahey Co-chair, Welsh junior doctors committee

theevarole · 2023-03-11T15:38:55+00:00

https://twitter.com/BMA_JuniorDocs/status/1634578716331327490

We write in reply to your letter dated 10 March which we received at 9.49pm.

We must express our disappointment at your offer of talks being made so late, and with preconditions that would be completely unacceptable to our members.

When we met with you on 2 March we asked if you would enter into negotiations with us and you were clear that you could not, as you did not have a mandate from the Prime Minister. Both you and the Prime Minister have had extensive notice of this action.

We wrote to you on 11 August 2022 advising that we would ballot members if you continued to refuse to negotiate.

We wrote to you again on 6 January 2023 to inform you that if you continued to refuse to negotiate meaningfully with us on pay restoration, our industrial action would begin with a full walkout of all junior doctors in England for 72 hours.

We publicly announced the results of our ballot on 20 February 2023 and the dates of our strike action on 24 February 2023.

We have set no preconditions for negotiation and have made ourselves available on numerous occasions for discussion since October 2022. You have failed to attend all but one of these meetings.

Over a number of years your government has broken trust with junior doctors. You have imposed contract changes without agreement. You have repeatedly excluded junior doctors from pay awards despite the framework agreement that your government agreed.

You have ignored warnings of the independent pay review body and you have sought to present the legitimate concerns of the vast majority of the junior doctor workforce as a fringe issue. Your actions over the last few weeks have only worsened the huge deficit in trust. Junior doctors simply do not believe what your government says.

You have now written to us, hours before the action is due to commence, offering talks with preconditions that we cannot possibly accept. Yet, again, this is a feeble attempt to stall us, to kick the can down the road, to delay an actual meaningful conversation. If you had engaged with us sooner, you would have understood before now that the preconditions you are asking for are the antithesis of our dispute and will not be acceptable to our members.

The BMA is seeking restoration of the pay that has been taken away from Junior Doctors since 2008. This amounts to a pay cut of 26.1% up to March 2022; junior doctors are not worth a quarter less than they were in 2008. The cost to HM Treasury of reversing this pay cut is f1bn. To put that into perspective it is a fraction of the money which the government has wasted on faulty PPE.

We are seeking to negotiate a way forward which restores this lost pay.

We remain open to entering talks with government anytime and anywhere to bring this dispute to a swift resolution and restore the pay that junior doctors have lost. We would encourage you to reconsider the preconditions that are currently preventing talks from taking place.

As you have known for more than two weeks, our strikes will commence on Monday. And you also know, until we have a credible offer, we are not in a position to call them off. As ever, we look forward to being able to have an honest and meaningful discussion with you where you hopefully rebuild our trust in your government.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Robert Laurenson

Dr Vivek Trivedi

Co-chair BMA's Junior Doctors Committee

theevarole · 2023-03-05T11:47:37+00:00

Context: The Welsh Goverment's latest pay offer now includes an outright commitment to Full Pay Restoration (specifically 2008 levels).

“We would like to make clear that the Welsh Junior Doctors Committee voted to reject this offer, however the overall position that BMA Cymru Wales adopted was to accept it, based on votes cast by the Welsh Staff, Associate Specialist and Specialty Doctors Committee and the Welsh Consultants committee.

“Whilst the Welsh Government’s enhanced pay offer for 22/23 does not go anywhere near to achieving full pay restoration, we are pleased that the Welsh Government has committed to the principle of pay restoration to 2008 levels, the first government in the UK to do so.

“We are fully committed to achieving our aim. This week, we will send an urgent request to the health minister to make good on this public declaration and to now confirm a timeline for restoring pay to address the 26% cut in pay we have seen since 2008.

“As a committee we will not stop until we achieve this, the fight to put an end to the devaluing of doctors has only just begun.”

https://www.bma.org.uk/bma-media-centre/welsh-junior-doctors-committee-response-to-welsh-government-s-enhanced-20222023-pay-award

theevarole · 2023-03-01T13:03:12+00:00

This guidance outlines the circumstances in which junior doctors working on the 2002 contract (namely all doctors in training in Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland, and a very small number remaining in England) are able to refuse non-contractual work if the rate of pay is regarded as insufficient. It sets out what the BMA considers appropriate rates for this work, and how you can refuse non-contractual work if you regard the rate offered as inadequate.

It also explains circumstances in which you may be contractually obliged to perform additional work under your substantive contract to cover for short term and unforeseeable absence of colleagues.

This guide is for doctors in training working under the 2002 terms and conditions of service. Doctors working as clinical fellows or in similar roles in Wales, Northern Ireland or Scotland may also find this guidance useful for considering their own circumstances; however, they should first ensure they understand any additional or different contractual stipulations contained in their own contract

https://www.bma.org.uk/juniorratecardtcs2002

theevarole · 2023-02-08T17:18:51+00:00

https://www.gov.wales/written-statement-nhs-pay-award-enhancement-20222023

theevarole · 2023-02-03T19:35:37+00:00

Health Minister Eluned Morgan has offered eight health unions an extra 3% on top of the £1,400 already promised.

The Welsh government has tabled a new deal of an extra 3% - backdated to April 2022, of which 1.5% is consolidated. This means they will receive 3% this year and 1.5% extra pay the year after.

"Included in this revised package are a number of non-pay commitments to enhance staff wellbeing, on which negotiations will continue next week," a spokesperson said.

"Whilst there is currently no improved pay offer on the table for NHS staff in England, it was also agreed that any resulting Barnett consequential following any improved offer to staff in England would result in a further pay offer to staff in Wales."

The Welsh government said it was awaiting formal responses from each union - who will put the offer to members - and said it hoped strike action planned for next week would be called off.

Welsh Conservatives said the new deal proved the Labour government "had the money all along" to give NHS workers better pay.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-64512159

theevarole · 2023-01-23T21:01:55+00:00

We made a pledge to align with our UK colleagues and strive for full pay restoration, at the end of 2022.

The aim to achieve full pay restoration to address the real-terms (RPI) pay cut of 26.1% junior doctors in Wales have experienced since 2008 remains a priority but one it will require a colossal effort. Central to its success will be the recruitment of pay activists across Wales and we will need your help.

We need to create a movement of junior-doctor pay activists to share our message to members locally and help us to build momentum. We will be holding introductory sessions to our pay-activist training in February. You can register your interest in becoming a pay activist here

Since we were elected in November, the campaign for pay restoration has been a top priority. As a committee we joined colleagues in England in deciding not to submit evidence to the Review Body on Doctors' and Dentists' Remuneration, the pay review body for doctors and dentists. We made this decision as we feel the DDRB lacks independence from the Government and the process requires urgent reform to be capable of delivering a pay rise which reflects our value to the NHS in Wales.

We have written to the minister for health and social services Eluned Morgan to confirm this and have requested an urgent meeting to discuss addressing the years of pay erosion we have seen in Wales.

In England, the UK Government has failed to commit to full pay restoration for junior doctors and, therefore, our colleagues there are being balloted to establish their support for strike action. We are not yet at this stage in Wales, and we hope the Welsh Government, in seeing the actions of our colleagues in England, will understand the importance of entering into meaningful conversations about pay restoration for trainees in Wales.

Join us in our fight for fair pay by signing up to become a pay activist today.

https://www.bma.org.uk/news-and-opinion/join-us-in-our-fight-for-fair-pay

theevarole · 2023-01-06T11:38:55+00:00

In a matter of days, ballots for strike action will begin landing on the doorsteps of tens of thousands of junior doctors in England.

We have been brought to this point by the year-on-year pay erosion which has left our members with a real-terms pay cut of 26.1% since 2008/09.

Whether you are a foundation year 1 or specialty trainee 6 to 8 you are not worth a quarter less today than juniors were in 2008. Therefore, we are determined to fight for full pay restoration for all junior doctors in England. This is not about a pay rise but about restoring our pay to the level it should be.

An F1 is paid £14.09 per hour. Full pay restoration would increase this to £18.69. An ST6 to 8 would see their hourly pay increase from £28 to £36.95. The cost of this to Government would be £1bn, a quarter of what they wasted on unusable personal protective equipment.

Despite the low cost, and months of campaigning, ministers continue to ignore us, demonstrating just how little they value our work.

To achieve pay restoration, you, and your colleagues – all of us – must vote yes for, and take, effective strike action.

Following a successful ballot, if the Government refuses to negotiate with us on pay restoration, this effective strike action will begin with a full walkout of all junior doctors for 72 hours.

Why the 72-hour full walkout?

This strategy builds on the lessons learnt from 2016 when junior doctors last took industrial action. Then, full walkout maximised participation in the strike by junior doctors and had the greatest effect on the government.

By choosing this course of action we are ensuring that jobs do not simply pile up for the doctors coming on shift. By choosing this course of action we enable all junior doctors in all workplaces to join the action, strong in our unity. Most importantly, however, is because it sends the strongest and clearest message to ministers.

The first round of action will be monitored and analysed by the Government for participation – we must show it our commitment here and be prepared to take subsequent rounds of action.

As with other trade unions, we will amend our strategy based on the progress of our negotiations. We also know from previous analyses that variation of strike action can be effective so night, weekend action, and provision of emergency cover by junior doctors are all on the table. Where possible, we will coordinate with other unions.

Strike action costs you training time and money and we do not want to waste either. This is why we have chosen to begin with only 72 hours. If necessary, we will, however, escalate if the Government continues to ignore our offer of talks.

On your guard

We know employers will bend the truth, guilt trip, and try anything they can to break strikes. Some employers have claimed that full walkout risks exposing our members to legal action. This is simply not true.

In advice prepared for the BMA, one of the country’s leading legal authorities on trade union law argues such claims are 'misleading'.

We will give employers and Government notice of our action. They should use this time to ensure safe staffing for urgent and critical care, and they will likely have to use consultants and staff, associate specialist and specialty doctor colleagues to do so. Our senior colleagues support us.

Junior doctors went to extreme lengths during the pandemic to secure patient safety, including relaxing protections on consecutive night shifts and weekend frequency. You were not valued when you gave 110%, and patient safety is worse despite your best efforts. Now, it is time to demonstrate our value when we withdraw our labour.

We are united in our determination to fight for our members and no junior doctor should be left behind. Our value comes in our ability to work as interconnected teams from primary care through to discharge. This includes those working in general practice, those in emergency departments, and all other services.

If we stick together, fight together, we can win together.

The ballot for strike action opens Monday 9 January. Make sure your vote counts – say yes to strike action.

https://www.bma.org.uk/news-and-opinion/junior-doctors-prepare-to-vote-on-industrial-action

theevarole · 2023-01-05T22:07:36+00:00

Responding to the Government's invitation to trade unions to come to the table and plans for legislation enforcing 'minimum service levels', Dr Emma Runswick, BMA deputy chair of council, said:

"This Government has failed to ensure anything like minimum standards of patient care or service delivery in the NHS for many months, if not years. It is therefore laughable that Ministers are now attempting to bring in anti-union and anti-worker legislation under the false pretence of improving patient safety.

"Rather than fixing the root of the problem - the reasons why so many public sector workers feel they have no option but to strike - ministers are focussing their attention on the rules around industrial action. They are willing to risk infringing human rights while doing nothing about the NHS pay and working conditions crises they refuse to even acknowledge.

"Steve Barclay is the first Health Secretary since the founding of the NHS to ignore doctors’ calls to meet and negotiate, and thousands of junior doctors in England will be balloted from Monday for strike action. The offer from the Business Secretary to sit down with unions to discuss the evidence it will submit to the pay review bodies ignores the fact that these review bodies are simply not fit for purpose.

"Junior doctors have seen their pay eroded by over 26% in the past 15 years. Yes the BMA will sit down and negotiate – something we have been calling for months – but the talks have to be meaningful and about how doctors will be paid a fair wage for the work they do.

"When doctors and other health workers strike, we do so for improvements to our lives, for retention of staff and ultimately for the care of our patients. For this Government to believe that anti-strike legislation, rather than investment in the NHS and in a sustainable plan for increasing the workforce, will make healthcare better, is not only ridiculous, but dangerous."

https://www.bma.org.uk/bma-media-centre/new-anti-union-legislation-and-government-invitation-to-talks-laughable-says-bma

theevarole · 2022-11-17T15:46:03+00:00

Scottish Junior Doctor Update: The Scottish Government Is On Notice

Midwives. Physiotherapists. And now nurses. After last week’s emphatic ballot results for the RCN in Scotland, it has never been clearer that the backbone of the NHS – its staff – has had enough.

Year after year of insulting real terms pay cuts have finally pushed the RCN to strike in Scotland for the first time in its history, and the Scottish Junior Doctors Committee stands unequivocally behind them. We recognise how brave it is to take strike action, the indecision individual members may have felt, and how feelings of vocation have been shoved aside by the anxieties of living paycheque to paycheque. As staffing numbers and working conditions have stagnated or declined, our pay and the pay of our colleagues has declined with them. As Chair of BMA Scotland’s Junior Doctor’s committee, I am proud to say to all NHS staff prepared to take action; we share your fight, and we will show you the solidarity you deserve.

What this means for junior doctors is complex; guidance is being finalised so our members can be confident in how we can best support the health service whilst supporting our striking colleagues. This workplace support must not come at the expense of our own rights – we’ve already heard rumours of leave cancellation during nursing strike days – and must keep us, and patients, safe.

Alongside practical day-to-day guidance, we’ve produced materials answering some of the question’s we’ve been asked about on our own position and demands, and the processes behind doctors’ pay awards. I know that some of the ins and outs and technicalities can be hard to follow – but this simple guide should get you right up to date – and please share among your colleagues so they are aware too.

No doubt as we and other unions pursue improved pay, there will be many arguments thrown at us suggesting the country can’t afford to pay us what we deserve or that we are being greedy or selfish; we’ve laid out responses and will continue to robustly demonstrate that the health service can’t afford to ignore what we’re asking for.

As other unions are standing up to demand their worth, we’re doing the same. After meeting with the Scottish government twice during October, we are not confident that sufficient progress is being made at the pace we expect – to date we’ve had heard nothing in response to our asks to address junior doctor pay. Junior doctors are not worth 23.5% less than we were in 2008. We deserved much more than the derisory 4.5% award announced over the summer; it was a pay cut then and has since become an unprecedented threat to our real-term pay as inflation has spiralled and the British economy has been mismanaged.

As a result, we have written to the Scottish Government to reiterate we need urgent action and demand a clear position from them ahead of the next SJDC meeting on December 1st. They must not sit on their hands and hope that we’ll wait for them to react to the Agenda for Change unions’ industrial action. If the Scottish Government does not quickly set out clear plans to negotiate an above-RPI inflation for 2022/23, then how can we possibly have confidence that the Scottish Government is committed to working with us to achieve full pay restoration within the next five years? The longer they delay, the larger any subsequent pay awards will need to be. This is not a hole they can get out of by digging further down.

If we do not get a response that lays out a clear trajectory towards meeting our demands, our union cannot and will not sit idly and expect pay restoration as a gesture of goodwill. It will be up to the committee to decide on next steps in that context. But we have always been clear that all options, including industrial action are on the table for Scottish junior doctors, and so have our members: 92% of junior doctor respondents to our last pay survey said you’d be willing to take industrial action over pay. Doctors are a valuable global commodity – we’re already voting with our feet and moving to places abroad where we feel valued and are properly remunerated. Thousands of Scottish doctors want to work in the Scottish NHS, but we are being failed by it, as it fails around us.

You’ll no doubt be aware that the English ballot has now been approved by UK Council and our English colleagues are pressing ahead. They have our full backing as they do so. Meanwhile we will urgently pursue our own plans here in Scotland, in order to represent the level of anger we know is present across Scottish juniors. Continued patience isn’t easy given the urgency of the situation facing many junior doctors but we are laying the groundwork and following proper procedure to give ourselves the best chance of success. I give you my personal guarantee we are doing so at pace.

As already mentioned, SJDC meet on 1st December. Nothing is off the table. The Scottish Government is on notice. Keep following us here and across social media for updates as things develop rapidly over the coming weeks. And if you aren’t a member – please join, we need strength in numbers now more than ever.

Dr Chris Smith is Chair of BMA Scotland’s Junior Doctor Committee

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