Junior doctors will join the wave of strikes hitting Britain’s state-run National Health Service after voting for industrial action in a dispute over pay.
(Bloomberg) — Junior doctors will join the wave of strikes hitting Britain’s state-run National Health Service after voting for industrial action in a dispute over pay.
A doctors’ labor group said Friday that 97% of newly-trained medics who participated in the ballot voted in favor of striking. Members want more than the 2% raise they received for the current fiscal year.
Workers have accused the government of underfunding the NHS and triggering mass vacancies with below-inflation pay offers. Nurses and ambulance workers have held several days of industrial action since last month and announced coordinated strikes on Feb. 6. Ambulance staff from three unions will walk out before then, on Jan. 23.
About 800 junior doctors took part in the vote by members of the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association. However, a much bigger ballot by the British Medical Association, which encompasses as many as 45,000 junior doctors, is due in February. The BMA has threatened 72 hours of walkouts in March if its members vote to strike.
The doctors’ unions are expected to coordinate action and the HCSA hasn’t yet released specific strike dates.
“Strike action would probably be in March, so there’s plenty of time between now and then for the government to show their hand and do something,” said Paul Donaldson, the HCSA’s general secretary, following a meeting with the Department for Health last week.
Read More: Nearly Half a Million UK Workers Set for Day of Mass Strikes
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesman Jamie Davies said it’s “obviously disappointing that some union members are going ahead with further strikes at a time when the NHS is already under huge pressure.”
The government is “very much open to continuing talks with the unions, ” he told reporters in a briefing.
–With assistance from Emily Ashton.
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