Labour offers young doctors HUGE 20 percent pay rise to end crippling strikes

The Labour Party has made a staggering pay proposal to young doctors, which could see their salaries rise by 20 per cent over the next two years.

The British Medical Association (BMA) Young Doctors Committee is said to have agreed to the offer to its members.

If the proposal is passed, it will end months of strikes over salaries.

The deal includes a rate hike from 8.8 to 10.3 percent, plus a retroactive 4.05 percent hike for 2023/24.

This is on top of a 6 per cent pay rise for 2024/25, topped up by a £1,000 payment, The times reported. This corresponds to a wage increase of 7 to 9 percent.

In the latest blow to patients, 67,034 hospital appointments in England were postponed due to a five-day strike by British Medical Association (BMA) junior doctors earlier this week

Junior doctors in their first year now have a basic salary of £32,300, while those with three years’ experience earn £43,900. The most senior earn £63,100

The total package represents a pay rise of around 20 per cent, and is thought to cost the taxpayer around £1 billion.

A spokesman for the prime minister told reporters: “As we have said before, we are committed to working towards a resolution and resolving this dispute. However, I cannot comment in detail on the negotiations.

‘We have been honest with the public and the industry about the economic circumstances we face.

“But the government is determined to do the hard work needed to finally put an end to these strikes.”

The strikes have caused “tremendous harm to patients and to waiting lists. We have said that we are determined to find a solution and resolve this dispute,” they added.

The BMA has long had claimed the demands are aimed at ‘restoring wages’, as previous pay rises for NHS medics since 2008 have failed to keep pace with inflation.

However, there is no guarantee that members will accept the new offer, as the union had pushed for a 35 percent pay increase.

MailOnline has asked the BMA for comment.

This follows strike action by medical workers earlier this month, which saw 61,989 appointments, procedures and operations postponed. At the height of the five-day strike, 23,001 staff were absent from work.

It This means that 1,486,258 appointments have been postponed since strikes across the NHS, involving doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and paramedics, began in late 2022.

But not all NHS hospitals have provided figures on cancelled appointments, so the true scale of disruption is likely to be higher.

Junior doctors in their first year currently earn a basic salary of £32,300, while those with three years’ experience earn £43,900. The most senior doctors earn £63,100.

Conservative ministers previously offered an average salary increase of 8.8 percent to young doctors for the 2023/2024 budget year.

However, the increase was larger for first-year doctors, who received a 10.3 percent raise.

Ministers insisted this was the final offer. But former Health Minister Victoria Atkins offered medics a further three per cent on top of this increase.

The union said at the time that this improved amount was still “completely insufficient”.

It comes as the government is also expected to confirm a 5.5 per cent pay rise for other NHS staff, including nurses, today after it adopted recommendations from the independent pay review body.

This wage increase applies to approximately 1.3 million employees.

Doctors and dentists are expected to get a six percent pay rise and senior NHS managers will get a five percent increase.

However, GPs have threatened to bring the NHS ‘to a standstill’ after GPs were turned away due to strike action.

Voting, which closed at noon today, could start as early as next Thursday.

It is feared that as many as three million GP visits per month could disappear if all GPs were to comply with the BMA’s demands to reduce the number of visits to just 25 per day.