Britain's newly elected government and the union representing junior doctors said Monday (29/7) they had reached a deal offering substantial pay rises, ending an unprecedented wave of strike action.
British Medical Association (British Medical Association/BMA) said it agreed to put the offer to members and recommend that they support it.
If accepted, it would end a long-running dispute over pay, which has sparked strikes including the longest – six days in total – in the seven-decade history of Britain's National Health Service (NHS).
Junior doctors in the UK, those below specialist and consultant level, have called for a 35 per cent “pay restoration”.
Although the new offer falls short of that figure, the BMA said the average pay rise for junior doctors over the two years of the dispute would be 22.3 per cent.
“This offer does not fully restore the wages lost by junior doctors over the last decade and a half,” the union said.
But while regretting that “it shouldn’t have taken this long to get to this point,” the union called the package “a good step forward for our profession, while acknowledging that there are still many issues to be resolved in the future.”
Since coming to power in July, the centre-left Labour government has been eager to resolve long-running industrial disputes fuelled by soaring inflation and bedevilling the previous Conservative government.
Apart from doctors, they have been renegotiating with railway workers.
Finance Minister Rachel Reeves hailed the agreement as “the start of a new relationship” between the government and health service staff.
Labour has made restoring the crisis-hit NHS a priority, promising to tackle the mounting waiting times for appointments and operations and the exodus of professionals leaving the sector. (ns/lt)
