UK’s BMA union willing to cancel strikes for suitable pay offer

[1/2]Junior doctors hold placards during a strike, amid a dispute with the government over pay, in London, Britain April 11, 2023. REUTERS/Maja Smiejkowska/File Photo

July 3 (Reuters) – The British Medical Association (BMA), which represents about 45,000 junior doctors in England, said on Monday its members were willing to cancel strikes if the government presented them with a suitable pay offer.

“We remain willing to talk and are very much prepared to cancel strikes, even at the last minute, should a suitable offer be presented,” Vishal Sharma, BMA consultants committee chair, said in a statement in response to a Times interview with British Health Minister Steve Barclay.

Barclay told the Times that the government was willing to give doctors a bigger pay rise and urged consultants to end strikes to resume negotiations.

Tens of thousands of junior doctors have staged walkouts this year to demand wage increases that match inflation, which as has been running into double digits. The government has said such pay rises would only inflame inflation further, pushing up interest rates and mortgages.

The BMA has said the latest pay offer of a 5% increase for 2023/24 was not credible since it was “nowhere near addressing pay erosion over the last 15 years.”

The Department of Health and Social Care did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Barclay’s interview.

Reporting by Lavanya Ahire and Rishabh Jaiswal in Bengaluru; editing by Robert Birsel

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