By Andy Ford, Unite NHS rep
The news that the NHS resident doctors (formerly junior doctors) are to strike has predictably sent the Tory press, and therefore, Starmer’s Health minister, Wes Streeting, into apoplexy. The vote to strike was a massive 90% on a 53% turnout.
As usual when he wants to present his right-wing face, Streeting gave an ‘exclusive’ interview to a right-wing rag, in this case the Daily Mail, using rhetoric worthy of Margaret Thatcher about “not caving in” to “militant unions” and even calling on BMA members who do not agree with the strike to help break it and “turn up to work”.
So, today, he is anti-union and in favour of strike breakers. No doubt in September, at Labour Party conference, he will present his left-wing face, telling all and sundry about his humble origins and lifelong commitment to social justice. No wonder no-one knows what these people really stand for.
Streeting says the resident doctors have had huge pay rises since the election, but their pay is still way below what it should be. In Year One, they currently earn £36,616 a year, and £42,008 in Year Two. If they progress to being a registrar, then the pay is £49,909.
I am a trained NHS job evaluator, and if you evaluate the work of resident doctors using the NHS 16-factor job evaluation scheme, they should be paid at Band 8c (£76-£80,000) or even 8d (£91-£105,000). That is to say, they are still being underpaid by at least £40,000 a year, and maybe even £70,000. The only reason they are not paid at those levels is because twenty years ago the BMA declined to have doctors’ pay in the NHS evaluated under the same rules as the rest of the NHS workforce.
In addition, most resident doctors have serious debts from student loans, with a £90,000 debt not uncommon. They have valuable skills and often get personalised adverts in their Facebook and Instagram feeds to go and work in Australia or America, and some of them do go. They have options; they do not have to work in the NHS.
Meanwhile, most of the other health unions are going through consultative votes to see if the mood is there for action against the pay ‘award’ of 3.6%. The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has just reported “overwhelming rejection” on a turnout that was above the 50% threshold set by the most recent Tory anti-union laws – the ones that Angela Rayner promised would be gone in “a hundred days”, so a strike of the biggest single group of NHS workers is a near-certainty.
The GMB, whose main base is Ambulance, and the Royal College of Midwives have also reported rejection, with its members voting by 67% against the 3.6% pay award offered. However, that vote may not have reached the 50% threshold. Unite is running a ‘dis-aggregated’ vote, which means counting each workplace separately, and early returns showed a number of workplaces crossing the 50% mark.
The 3.6% pay award in the NHS only keeps pace with inflation, when what is needed is pay restoration. Under Tory and Lib-Dem austerity, NHS workers saw their pay eroded by about 40% in real terms. NHS Band 2 is now just on minimum wage, and Band 3 is not much better.
Nearly half a million NHS staff are currently employed in these two pay bands alone. Many of them are leaving to earn the same or better pay in supermarkets or routine admin jobs where they do not face the constant pressure of clinical work.
In a further twist, new visa rules introduced, in a misguided response to Reform’s electoral successes, have ensured that NHS Band 3 falls £67 a yearshort of eligibility for overseas workers to be supported into the NHS. Because of that £67 a year, and the erosion of the NHS pay scales, huge holes are going to open up in NHS staffing, with dire effects on patient care. No amount of right-wing rhetoric will fill those holes.
The trade union movement should demand:
- Resident doctors be paid fairly
- The government should agree a road map towards pay restoration for all NHS staff
- A restoration of the nursing bursary
- An end to pandering to the illusory politics of racism
