Junior Doctors in England to Strike Again in December and January

Junior doctors in England will take further strike action later this month and in January, their trade union said on Tuesday, after weeks of talks with the government failed to end a long-running dispute over pay.

The British Medical Association (BMA), which represents nearly 200,000 doctors in Britain, said junior doctors would walk out from Dec. 20 until Dec. 23, and then again from Jan. 3 until Jan. 9.

“We have been clear from the outset of these talks that we needed to move at pace and if we did not have a credible offer, we would be forced to call strikes,” BMA junior doctors committee co-chairs Robert Laurenson and Vivek Trivedi said. “Even though the approach was more constructive, there was not enough on offer to shape a credible deal, which we hoped would end the dispute.”

The BMA said the government had offered an additional 3%, unevenly spread across doctors’ grades, which it argued would still amount to pay cuts for many doctors this year.

Last month the government reached a deal with medical unions which could see an end to strike action by senior doctors, known as consultants, in England.

The BMA said that offer, which will be put to a vote over the coming weeks, would see some doctors would receive an additional uplift of as much as 12.8%.