Hospital doctors in Scotland have been offered a cumulative 14.5% pay rise in a fresh attempt by Scottish ministers to avert highly disruptive strikes.
Junior doctors had voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action in Scotland for the first time after rejecting the original Scottish government offer, in a dispute closely mirroring the industrial action by doctors in English hospitals.
The British Medical Association has put the revised offer to Scottish junior doctors, saying this is the best deal they are likely to get.
The proposal involves an extra 3% in backdated pay on top of last year’s 4.5% award and a rise of 6.5% this year, taking the cumulative increase to 14.5% over two years. So far, no deal has been put to English junior doctors, who have carried out two strikes in hospitals.
Dr Chris Smith, the chair of BMA Scotland’s junior doctors committee, said that while this offer only partly dealt with the historical shortfall between their pay over the last 15 years and the effects of inflation, it would help close that gap.
Michael Matheson, Scotland’s health secretary, said he was delighted to put forward “a fair and progressive rise” to junior doctors. However, his claim that the offer had been agreed to by the BMA was rejected by Smith.
“To be clear, this is not a deal we have agreed, and we have not accepted any offer,” Smith said. Even so, “we feel this offer reflects the best that the Scottish government will offer after this series of negotiations.
“[The] members who gave us an overwhelming mandate for strike action will now decide whether the offer is sufficient as we begin the long overdue journey towards pay restoration, which would still have some way to go if the offer is approved.”
The Scottish government said the offer would cost £61.3m and was the best made by any government in the UK: doctors’ pay deals are negotiated separately in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
In England, where junior doctors have demanded a 35% pay increase to make up for a long erosion in their pay, talks are under way between the BMA and the health secretary, Steve Barclay, to settle their dispute.
Scottish ministers have also proposed to set up a junior doctors pay bargaining review taskforce. The BMA said that should lead to a “vastly improved mechanism” to continue restoring pay levels in future to close the gap between pay and the cost of living.
