After a “credible” pay offer was made to consultants in Northern Ireland this week, the health minister has said he won’t do the same for junior doctors unless they agree to modernise their contracts.
People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll asked Mike Nesbitt about any offers he had made to junior doctors to avert further industrial action.
Mr Nesbitt said he had been actively engaged with BMA representatives to find “an acceptable path forward,” including an offer of independent arbitration which had not been taken up.
He said the 2023/24 pay award, granting an average pay increase of 9.07% for junior doctors, would be included in their June pay packets.
He added that the current budget does not afford “any scope” for a pay deal that goes above the above-inflationary award, but would instead propose a real-terms cut of 2.3%.
Stating he would pursue all financial opportunities, Mr Nesbitt said his officials “have been clear” with the BMA that the best way to secure extra money was via a business case supporting a modernised contract.
He said there had been “no further movement” from the BMA’s junior doctor committee, who are calling for a full pay restoration to 2008 levels (with pay estimated to have eroded by 30% since then) without any changes to their contract and conditions.
Mr Nesbitt said that a modernised contract would realise “better outcomes for junior doctors and employers,” and would be the key to securing extra pay.
He has urged the junior doctor committee to re-engage with officials on the issue of contracts which would allow him to develop a new business case for the Department of Finance.
He said without agreement “it is simply not possible” to make a bid for extra pay, but that his door remained open.
Dr Fiona Griffin, chair of the BMA NI junior doctors Commitee (NIJDC), said it was “categorically untrue” that members were unwilling to engage on contract reform.
After the last strike on June 6 and an announcement of an extra pay uplift for junior doctors in Wales, she said her committee had immediately asked to meet Mr Nesbitt in person, but they had yet to receive a response from the Minister or his department.
“When the Department says that NIJDC ‘wish for full pay restoration outside of any changes to their contract and terms and conditions’ this is categorically untrue.
“We have always been clear that we are more than willing to discuss contract reform as part of the overall discussion on pay, but within that discussion we need to see a commitment to improving pay. We cannot spend months working on a new contract only to find there is no additional pay at the end of that road.
“With this weeks’ pay developments for consultants, it feels even clearer that junior doctors in Northern Ireland are not valued.”
