The year-and-a-half-long strike wave by hospital interns in England is coming to an end. The internal committee of the British Medical Association in England announced on Monday 16 September that 66% of its members had voted in favour of an agreement with the government providing for a 22.3% pay rise.
“It should never have taken so long to get to this point”said commission co-chairs Robert Laurenson and Vivek Trivedi, welcoming the agreement as “the end of fifteen years of wage erosion and the beginning of two years of modest increases above inflation”.
Trainees have staged a series of strikes over the past eighteen months to protest below-inflation pay rises since 2010 and increased cost-of-living pressures. Shortly after coming to power in July, the new Labour government proposed a substantial pay rise over two years to end strikes that saw doctors strike eleven times.
“There is still a long way to go”
Health Minister Wes Streeting welcomed the deal and reaffirmed Labour’s belief that it was repairing the legacy of the previous Conservative administration, which had been in power since 2010. “Things should never have gotten this bad”he said in a press release.
“There is still a long way to go: doctors are 20.8% behind in real terms compared to the situation in 2008”The co-presidents of the commission added, however, for their part.
The doctors’ strikes, which have led to cancelled appointments and delayed treatment, are part of a series of strikes across the public and private sectors to protest wages and working conditions amid soaring inflation.
