Junior doctors contract dispute in England, 2015

A junior doctors contract dispute in England led to industrial action being taken in 2015 and 2016. A negotiation between NHS Employers and the British Medical Association (BMA) had been overshadowed by the Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt threatening to impose certain aspects. The BMA balloted members in November 2015 and industrial action was scheduled for the following month. The initial action was suspended, although further talks broke down. Junior doctors took part in a general strike across the NHS in England on 12 January 2016, the first such industrial action in 40 years. Junior doctors again withdrew their labour for routine care on 10 February. On 26 April 2016 junior doctors withdrew from emergency and routine care, the first time this had happened.

Since 2012 NHS Employers and the BMA had been in negotiation towards a new contract for junior doctors. These talks ran into serious problems when the Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt, appeared willing to impose items from the Conservative 2015 election manifesto upon junior doctors in England. In September 2015, Hunt proposed new contracts for junior doctors which would scrap overtime rates for work between 7am and 10pm on every day except Sunday while increasing their basic pay. Hunt claimed that this would be cost neutral, but the BMA responded by saying that NHS Employers had been unable to support with robust data. The union argued that the contract would include an increase in working hours with a relative pay cut of up 40%, and refused to re-enter negotiations unless Hunt dropped his threat to impose a new contract and extensive preconditions, which he had refused to do. The Department of Health responded, saying "We are not cutting the pay bill for junior doctors and want to see their basic pay go up just as average earnings are maintained."

On 26 September the BMA announced that it would ballot its members. By October, a survey showed many junior doctors would consider leaving the NHS if the contract was forced through. Hunt later tried to re-assure the BMA that no junior doctor would face a pay cut, before admitting those who worked longer than 56 hours a week would face a fall in pay. He said that working these long hours was unsafe, claiming that existing pay arrangements were known colloquially in the NHS as "danger money", although a Facebook survey carried out by one doctor showed that 99.7% of 1,200 respondents had never heard of the term.

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