Junior doctors to be balloted over strike action
- Published
BMA Scotland says junior doctors have suffered a huge real-terms pay cut since 2008
Junior doctors in Scotland are to be balloted on strike action after "reluctantly" entering into a pay dispute with the Scottish government.
It comes after leaders of BMA Scotland said talks had failed to reach an agreement.
It will now ballot junior doctors on strike action in the new year.
The BMA previously announced that junior doctors in England would be balloted for industrial action in January.
BMA Scotland said pay awards for junior doctors in Scotland had delivered real terms pay cuts of 23.5% since 2008.
It added that with inflation continuing to rise, this year's 4.5% uplift "is again being outstripped and the position on pay erosion will be worse by the end of the year".
The organisation's Scottish junior doctors committee said it had now "reluctantly entered into a trade dispute with the Scottish government".
Committee chairman Dr Chris Smith said: "We need to show the Scottish government that now is the time that junior doctors in Scotland say enough is enough.
"As the health service limps through the end of a pandemic that it entered already at breaking point, junior doctors are being asked to do more and more.
"We are burning out and struggling to afford our heating bills in the process."
Dr Smith said some junior doctors in Scotland, who are "making life or death decisions and staffing wards across the country" were earning a basic salary that equated to about £14 an hour.
He added: "After years at university, and after some of us have incurred huge debts, this is not good enough - and it is not sustainable."
Health Secretary Humza Yousaf said the BMA's pay demands were unaffordable
Dr Smith said the Scottish government had been given "plenty of opportunity to rethink this year's pay award which is, frankly, unacceptable under the current circumstances".
And he called on the government to commit to entering into "meaningful negotiations" on restoring junior doctor pay to 2008 levels.
He said: "They have given us no confidence this will happen, and so we find ourselves forced to push forward with our plan to seek approval to ballot our Scottish junior doctor members on strike action."
Health Secretary Humza Yousaf said the pay rise junior doctors were looking for was unaffordable in the current climate.
He added: "I've been very open about the real fiscal challenges we face.
"We have explored all options this year and there's no additional money for pay without cutting NHS and other public services."
He said he had offered to meet the BMA again and would be writing to the Doctors and Dentist Review Bodies to see if they wished to make a separate and specific recommendation for junior doctor pay in 2023.