Tens of thousands of physicians in England started a four-day strike this week amid mounting worries that their contentious wage dispute with the British government will continue into the winter.
Early-career physicians’ sixth round of strikes is expected to continue till Tuesday morning at 7 a.m. Some of the young physicians on strike just began their first positions in the National Health Service, which is sponsored by the government.
Junior physicians, who perform a large portion of the everyday job in hospitals and put in extremely long hours, are taking action, which will unavoidably increase the backlog in the troubled health system. By the time the physicians return to work, the NHS estimates that 1 million treatments and appointments will have been postponed or rescheduled, at a cost of 1 billion pounds ($1.27 billion).
To bring compensation back to 2008 levels after accounting for inflation, the British Medical Association, which represents the roughly 75,000 junior physicians, has been calling for a 35% pay increase. However, the government is only providing them with a 6% raise plus a further consolidated rise, and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has vowed that no more negotiations would take place.
Sumi Manirajan, a junior physician and the deputy co-chair for the BMA’s U.K. physician committee, said that she often encounters colleagues who are “burned out.”
“All that we are asking is for our wages to return to what it was in 2008.” The 29-year-old remarked along a picket line on the outside of the University College Hospital in the northern part of the city, “We’re not asking for a wage hike.”
Manirajan, a junior doctor for a period of three years, stated, “My friends have quit the NHS following a year of serving and have now gone to Australia.”
The government, on the other hand, maintains that their pay offer is reasonable and that complying with the wage demand will further fuel inflation in the U.K.
As a government, “we have an obligation to be responsible regarding the pay settlements we’re supposed to give, which is why we listened to the recommendations of the Independent Pay Review body,” Treasury Minister John Glen explained to Sky News.
The United Kingdom has had disruptive strikes as employees, including teachers, train drivers, and nursing professionals, have pushed for compensation that maintains pace with a fast rise in consumer prices, like other countries in Europe. The largest rail union, the Railroads, Maritime, and Transportation Union, stated this week that 20,000 of its members who work for 14 train companies will strike on August 26 and September 2.
The government promised wage raises for millions of public sector employees, including teachers, in the past month. Teachers were one of the groups that chose to end their protest after the offer was made, which was 6.5% in their instance.
