A dangerous precedent for “bumper pay rises” has been set by the Government’s decision to cave in to militant junior doctors at huge cost, the Shadow Health Secretary has warned.
Members of the British Medical Association (BMA) sparked fury on Tuesday when they threatened to call further strikes despite accepting a 22% pay deal.
Union leaders insisted the “journey is not over” as they turned their attention to further uplifts to restore pay to 2008 levels.
Shadow Health Secretary Victoria Atkins said: “Having settled deals with consultants and with specialty doctors before the election, I am pleased for the sake of patients that junior doctors have finally accepted a deal.
“The threats by the Junior Doctors’ Committee to continue striking next year, however, show the price this Labour Government has paid: an inflation-busting pay rise with no requirement for improving productivity, increasing value for taxpayers or even future-proofing against more strikes.”
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Hinting that workers in other fields will be emboldened by the deal, Ms Atkins added: “Labour has set the precedent that they will reward strikes with bumper pay rises at the expense of some of the most vulnerable in our society, through their cuts to winter fuel payments.”
The BMA announced on Monday that members had voted 66% in favour of accepting the Government’s pay offer. The vote signalled an end to 22 months of disruption for the NHS, which saw junior doctors in England down tools 11 times.
But leaders of the union’s Junior Doctors’ Committee immediately warned of further industrial action if future demands are not met.
Co-chairman Dr Vivek Trivedi said: “This is the first step towards restoring pay, which is all that doctors have wanted since the beginning of this campaign.
“We will expect pay uplifts each and every year, as we have done in the past. And if those pay uplifts don’t occur in a timely fashion and at the pace that our members have asked for to restore our pay, then that’s when we’ll be going to the Government.
“We’ll be going to Mr Streeting … and if those communications break down, then we will be thinking about going back into dispute and striking again if we need to.”
He added: “That’s always a last-case resort and something we don’t want to have to do.”
The pay deal will see junior doctors’ pay rise by an average of four percent for 2023-24, on top of the existing nine percent they have already received for that year. A further pay rise averaging eight percent will be paid for 2024-25.
Both rises mean a doctor starting foundation training in the NHS will see base pay increase from about £32,400 to £36,600.
The Government has also agreed that from Wednesday, “junior doctors” across the UK will be known as “resident doctors”.
Dr Robert Laurenson, the other co-chairman of the BMA Junior Doctors’ Committee, said a third of those who voted in the ballot felt the deal “fell short”.
And he said the union would be expecting future pay offers to “maintain that pace towards pay restoration”.
“If the pay review body does its job and respects and understands that medicine is no longer an attractive career, as it once used to be, and that it begins to try to fix the retention issues that we have, then there will be no need for further strike action,” he said.
“But if, as we see over the last 14 to 15 years, there’s more pay erosion, with real-terms pay cuts, I’m afraid we’ll have no option but to go back into dispute, because Mr Streeting would have overpromised and under-delivered.”
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said on Monday he was pleased the BMA had accepted the deal.
He said: “We inherited a broken NHS, the most devastating dispute in the health service’s history, and negotiations hadn’t taken place with the previous ministers since March.
“This marks the necessary first step in our mission to cut waiting lists, reform the broken health service, and make it fit for the future.”
