The BMA has urged GP registrars to vote in favour of accepting a pay offer made by the Government to junior doctors in England.
The union’s GP registrars committee has recommended that members vote to accept the offer, which would increase pay by 22.3% over two years, in a referendum of more than sixty thousand junior doctors opening today.
The offer includes a backdated pay rise of 4.05% for 2023/24, which is on top of the existing increase of between 8.8% and 10.3%, and for the current financial year, junior doctors would receive an average 8% increase via the pay review body’s recommendation of 6%, as well as a consolidated payment of £1,000.
GP registrars who are on the 2023/24 or should be on the 2024/25 Flexible Pay Premia rates will also get back pay for FPP, which will increase the amount of back pay received, the BMA said.
The deal also includes reforms to the exception reporting system, which the union said will make it ‘much easier’ for GP registrars to submit exception reports and receive payment or time off in lieu when working beyond contracted hours, ‘without the risk of affecting professional relationships with GP trainers’.
If accepted by members, this would bring an end to junior doctor industrial action in England, which first began in March last year.
GP registrars committee chair Dr Malinga Ratwatte said that, while the union recognises that ‘this is not full pay restoration’, the offer ‘allows us to bank the wins’ that have been achieved by strike action.
He said: ‘The Government has made a pay offer for junior doctors in England and your BMA GP registrars committee has voted to recommend that this offer be accepted.
‘If the offer is accepted, full-time annual pay for GP registrars, including the GP flexible pay premium in some cases, will increase. GP registrars will also be due a lump sum payment for backdated pay.
‘Reforms to the exception reporting system will make it much easier for GP registrars to submit exception reports and receive payment or time off in lieu when working beyond contracted hours, without the risk of affecting professional relationships with GP trainers.
He added that the 2016 contract will also be updated so that GP FPP will be uplifted in line with annual DDRB pay recommendations for junior doctors, ‘protecting parity of pay between doctors working in hospital and GP settings into the future’.
He said: ‘Whilst we recognise that this is not full pay restoration, this offer allows us to bank the wins that have been achieved by your strike action and to ensure that GP registrars are able to see the direct results of action taken over the last 18 months.
‘Accepting the offer would allow us to recharge our strike funds though back pay and to benefit from the compounding effect of serial pay uplifts as we look towards the future.’
Junior doctors committee co-chairs Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi said their committee is also recommending members vote ‘yes’ to this offer.
They said: ‘It is an offer which represents the first step towards restoring junior doctors’ pay after more than a decade of cuts. It does not amount to full pay restoration but it is an opportunity to bank our progress this year and build on it next year – an opportunity we believe is the right one to take.
‘Make no mistake that we are determined to restore the pay that has been lost to real terms cuts since 2008. But we never said this would be in one year. This represents a solid base: we hope members will vote yes to this deal so we can start building from here.’
The referendum will close on 15 September.
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