98% of UK junior doctors vote to stage first ever joint strike with consultants – JURIST

The British Medical Association (BMA) announced Thursday that in a recent re-ballot for continued junior doctor strike action, 98 percent of junior doctors in the UK voted in favor of continuing their planned strikes for the upcoming months. The industrial action will coincide with that planned by UK consultants, resulting in the first ever “joint strike” between the two groups on September 20.

Of the 44,079 votes cast by junior doctors in the BMA, 43,340 voted in favor of continuing with future strike action as they fight for pay restoration. The BMA stated they must “stand shoulder to shoulder with our consultant colleagues and take joint action for the first time in this dispute” in order to “escalate” their action. Following the vote, junior doctors plan to strike between September 19 and 22, as well as October 2 through 4. A national rally of strikers is also organized for October 3 on the doorstep of the Conservative Party Conference to demonstrate that doctors across the country “are as fired up as ever about being paid their worth.” The BMA hopes that this strike action will encourage the UK government to “come to the table . . . [with] a credible offer.”

Speaking to their union on social media, BMA junior doctor committee co-chairmen Dr. Rob Laurenson and Dr. Vivek Trivedi expressed their hope for this planned action, saying, “[I]f we continue to stick together and strike together, we will win together.” The chairmen insisted that if this action was not successful in achieving their goal of full pay restoration, they “will do it again in six months time if we need to,” promising that they “will not be silenced” over this issue.

UK Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Steve Barclay called the BMA’s announcement “extremely disappointing.” Right now, the UK government is set to provide doctors who provided their hospital training in 2023 a 10.3 percent pay raise, and average junior doctors a 8.8 percent pay raise. Barclay maintained that these figures are “final,” and said, “I urge the BMA to call an end to this callous and calculated disruption.”

Over the past 15 years, junior doctors have seen a pay drop of over one third of their pay. The action planned for this autumn is the sixth round of walkouts seen in 2023, and groups maintain that a suitable agreement regarding a pay rise is yet to be agreed upon. Junior doctors insist a 35 percent pay raise is needed to cover a decline in pay over the last fifteen years.

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