Resident doctors in United Kingdom began their 15th strike in just over three years on Tuesday, escalating a long-running dispute with the government over pay and employment conditions.
The six-day industrial action by doctors below consultant level comes despite the medics receiving a 28.9 percent pay increase over the past three years after a series of earlier walkouts.
The government and the resident doctors remain at odds over the union’s push for another significant salary increase, which the doctors say is necessary to offset the real-term erosion of their wages caused by inflation.
Health Minister Wes Streeting criticised the doctors’ union for turning down the government’s latest 4.9 percent pay offer during an ongoing cost-of-living crisis.
Streeting told BBC television the doctors had been the “standout winners of the entire public sector workforce when it comes to pay rises”.
He accused the union of moving too quickly towards industrial action despite the earlier “whopping” pay rise, adding that the strike would cost the state-funded National Health Service £300 million ($3.9 million).
The British Medical Association, which represents the resident doctors, is demanding full pay restoration to 2008 levels.
The UK government has repeatedly insisted that meeting those demands is not possible under the current economic conditions.
Streeting has also already agreed to the union’s request that UK-trained doctors should be prioritised for training positions ahead of overseas applicants.
