UK’s junior doctors to strike next month for more pay

Bloomberg

Junior doctors in England will walk out for three consecutive days next month after voting overwhelmingly to take industrial action over pay, claiming the government has refused to engage.
The British Medical Association (BMA) said trainee doctors will not report for work starting from March 13 as they push for a higher than 2% raise for the current fiscal year.
The strike, which will continue until early on March 16, is the longest consecutive walkout by health workers in the current protest. The BMA represents 47,600 junior doctors in England.
“Make no mistake, this strike was absolutely in the government’s gift to avert; they know it, we know it and our patients also need to know it,” said Robert Laurenson and Vivek Trivedi, co-chairs of BMA’s junior doctors committee. “We are left with no option but to proceed with this action.”
The doctors will be on strike when Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt presents the budget on March 15, underscoring the challenge faced by a government which is witnessing a wave of industrial action across public services.
With inflation above 10%, unions are demanding bigger raises but the government
offered workers — including nurses, police officers, teachers and dentists — a 3.5% for 2023-24.