Junior doctors’ picket line leaders being paid £250 a day to set up strikes
While their colleagues have their pay DOCKED for every day at the picket line
JUNIOR doctors being hired to co-ordinate strike action are being paid up to £250-a-day - while their colleagues have their pay docked for taking part.
It has been revealed walkout organisers can claim the cash from the British Medical Association as well as expenses for hotels and business-class travel.
However, junior doctors on the picket line, who earn around £30,000 a year, will lose £2,300 if they join all the walkouts up until December.
One who have dared to speak out against BMA said: "I can't afford to give up a quarter of my salary.
"I'm so fed up with the BMA."
This week the British Medication Association has announced dates for five-day strikes but the move has been slammed by senior colleagues.
I can't afford to give up a quarter of my salary. I'm so fed up with the BMA.
Junior doctor
Junior doctors will now go on strike from September 12 to September 16.
They also plan to strike on the 5,6,7, 10 and 11th of October.
Further action is also scheduled for November 14 to November 18 and December 5 to December 9.
Patients Association’s chief executive Katherine Murphy said she is “gravely troubled” at the “catastrophic impact this will have on so many patients and their families.”
Junior doctors row: Why are junior doctors striking?
JUNIOR doctors have announced five days of strike action ahead of a controversial new contract due to come into effect in October.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the walkouts would see 100,000 operations and around one million appointments affected, and described it as “a devastating strike, the like of which the NHS has never seen before”.
But what is the dispute actually about?
The Government wants to introduce a new contract for junior doctors working up to consultant level to replace one it says is outdated.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt wants to cut the number of hours for which junior doctors can claim extra pay on weekends.
This will offset a hike they will get in basic pay.
The issue over weekend work and weekend pay has been a sticking point in the long-running dispute.
Hunt wants to introduce a seven-day working week arguing people still fall ill over the weekend and on public holidays.
He believes that having fewer staff on duty means care is not the same as for Monday through to Fridays.
Discussions between junior doctors and the Government started in 2012 but broke down in 2014.
Junior doctors planned to go on strike in December last year but it was called off at the last minute when the British Medication Association entered talks with the Government and NHS employers.
Those talks ended with no resolution.
Between January this year and the end of April junior doctors staged five rounds of industrial action.
During the most recent walkout in April they stopped providing emergency care for the first time in NHS history.
Overall around 150,000 operations and appointments were cancelled and needed to be rearranged as a result.
In May the BMA agreed to re-enter talks with the Department of Health and a deal was reached after 10 days of intensive talks.
This week a spokesman confirmed chairman of the BMA's Junior Doctors Committee (JDC), Dr Ellen McCourt, and senior JDC members can claim up to £250 a day for union business.
But the BMA insisted they cannot claim the money during days of industrial action - although they can claim money back for first-class train travel and luxurious hotels.
"The best thing junior doctors can do now is to go to work."
Mr Hunt says a deal was reached in May when the BMA put the proposal to his members, and so further strike action shouldn’t be taking place.
He says cannot understand why “a devastating strike, the like of which the NHS has never seen before” is taking place after an agreement was reached.
Mr Hunt said talks are resuming over four remaining issues two of which have been dealt with.
The two remaining issues are around Saturday pay and and automatic pay for part-time workers.
But junior doctors say they don’t just want to be paid more for doing extra hours.
They say their action is about having more funding to pay for medical staff who will have to cover the weekdays when staff have been moved over to increased weekend care.
They says the new contract will stretch them to “ridiculous” levels.
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