Working out if you can take part
Check your contract
In a pay dispute with the NHS, you need a contract with an NHS employer to be able to take action. For these purposes, 'NHS employer' includes NHS England as an employer of public health consultants.
Those with honorary or VSM contracts with an NHS employer are not included in this action (see below).
You cannot take industrial action against any other non-NHS employer, such as a university or local authority employer.
Please note that you will only be taking lawful, protected industrial action — and will only have the legal protections that go with it, including protection from automatically unfair dismissal — if the action is covered by a current BMA ballot mandate and you take part on the dates, and in the way, that the BMA has called. Always follow the BMA's specific instructions for each period of action.
Check your role
Take a look at our list below to find if you can take part in industrial action as part of the pay dispute between the NHS and consultants in England.
You can take part in this industrial action if you have an NHS employer, unless you are employed on an honorary or VSM contract. You cannot take part if you do not have an NHS employer such as a private practice or a GP practice.
You do not have to be a member of a trade union to take part in industrial action, although non-members will not benefit from any BMA support or protection from unfair dismissal. However, if you are a member of another trade union but not the BMA, you should not take part unless that union has also balloted and called you to take part in industrial action. Become a BMA member now.
All consultants can take industrial action, including those with annualised contracts. If the strike day(s) falls on a day that you are not scheduled to work, you personally would not need to take industrial action. In most cases your employer should not deduct pay for a day you were no due at work. You are fully entitled to join in organised activities on the day (such as pickets or demos), and we would encourage you to do so.
You can take part in this industrial action if you have an NHS employer. You cannot take part if you do not have an NHS employer, such as a private practice or a GP practice, or are employed via a locum agency.
If you are a dentist only, you cannot take part in this industrial action, as the BDA does not have an active mandate for industrial action.
If you are an oral and maxillofacial surgeon who is eligible to take part under the BMA mandate, you can take part if you have an NHS employer, unless you are employed on an honorary or VSM contract. You cannot take part if you do not have an NHS employer.
You can take part in this industrial action provided you are employed on consultant terms and conditions by an NHS employer. You cannot take part if you do not have an NHS employer or are employed on a VSM contract. This applies to all medical managers, including clinical/medical directors, clinical leads, and associate and assistant medical/division directors.
You can take part in industrial action if you are employed on medical terms by NHS England, OHID and UKHSA.
You cannot take part if you do not have an NHS contract, for example if you are employed by local authorities (even on an NHS equivalent contract).
You cannot take part in this industrial action.
Consultant clinical academics are employed by university/HEI employers, while generally also holding honorary contracts with NHS employers. Universities/HEIs are solely responsible for paying consultant clinical academics and the BMA is not in dispute with them.
You cannot take part in this industrial action if you are a regular in the armed forces as you are prohibited from doing so under King's Regulations.
You can take action if you are a reservist and the action falls during time in which you are contracted to deliver NHS services for your civilian employer. This is because you are not precluded from taking industrial action against your civilian NHS employer.
If you can't find the information you need in this guide, send us your questions here and we will add the answers to these pages.
Or contact our member relations team at [email protected] if you have a question about your personal circumstances.