Resident doctors to vote on strike action in pay row with Scottish Government

Resident doctors in Scotland are set to be balloted on industrial action after a union accused the Scottish Government of “going back” on a pay agreement.

BMA Scotland said the Government pledged in 2023 to make “credible progress” towards restoring pay to 2008 levels in each of the next three years.

However, it said the Government’s pay offer for resident doctors – formerly known as junior doctors – for next year would see them receive a real-terms pay cut.

The union added that the “unacceptable” offer is below the level recommended by an independent pay review, and the lowest uplift for resident doctors anywhere in the UK.

Dr Chris Smith, chairman of the BMA’s Scottish resident doctor committee (SRDC), said: “In our pay negotiations this year, the Government has shamefully reneged on the deal we agreed in 2023, and we therefore have been left with no choice but to move forward with plans to ballot members for strike action in order to protect that deal.

“This agreement was the only thing that prevented strike action by resident doctors in Scotland in 2023 and we remain the UK’s only resident doctors not to have gone on strike since it was agreed.

“But that will be forced to change if our agreed deal is ignored. By going back on the deal, the Scottish Government have knowingly and severely increased the likelihood of us choosing the path of industrial action and the disruption to the NHS that will cause.

“To be absolutely clear, on our side, we want a negotiated settlement, as we have achieved each of the past two years.”

Dr Smith said there is still time to avert industrial action, but a “real improvement” in the offer is needed.

“The offer this year is likely to be less even than RPI inflation, which means that it would have constituted a real-terms pay cut – we are already 17% worse off than our peers were in 2008 and this would have made that worse,” he said.

“It is completely unacceptable and it is clear that this is a far cry from the credible progress on the path to pay restoration that we were promised.”

Dr Smith warned that without an acceptable offer the NHS risks losing resident doctors to “other professions and countries”, which he said would have “disastrous consequences for a heath service already on its knees”.

He continued: “The decision to ballot for strike action has not been taken lightly, but frankly we have been left with no other choice.

“We are not asking for more – we trusted the Scottish Government in accepting the pay deal and are simply asking that they now deliver that deal.”

Health Secretary Neil Gray said he “did not recognise” claims the Government has backtracked on the 2023 agreement, pointing out that resident doctors received uplifts of 12.4% in 2023/24 and 11% in 2024/25.

“These were the highest pay awards across the public sector that, I believe, were justified to begin the process of delivering on the 2023 agreement in good faith,” he said.

“While I respect the BMA’s right to pursue this course of action, I am nonetheless disappointed that resident doctors have chosen to be in dispute with the Scottish Government.

“I have made a fair, affordable, equitable pay offer of 4.25% for 2025/26, with a further 3.75% for 2026/27.

“That’s the same offer that nurses and other NHS staff chose to accept earlier this year and shows the value we also place on the role that resident doctors play in our hospitals and health clinics.”