Consultants re-enter pay dispute
BMA’s Northern Ireland consultants committee (NICC) have made the decision to re-enter a dispute with the Department of health and health service employers in response to this year’s 4% DDRB recommended pay uplift for doctors which is not enough to address years of pay erosion for consultants, and over continuing delays in implementing this pay uplift in Northern Ireland.
NICC chair, Dr David Farren, said: “When our members voted to accept last year’s pay deal we warned the department must demonstrate that it values doctors by continuing to work with us on reversing years of below inflation pay awards and to ensure timely and prompt payment of all future pay body recommended uplifts. Regrettably after engaging with the department on this issue since April, this has not happened and we have been left with no choice but to re-enter a pay dispute with a reintroduction of a rate card for non-contractual work. If the Health minister will not value our time, we will.
We are still willing to engage with the department on resolving this issue, however we will now move to gather the views of consultants on what our next steps will be through an indicative ballot. If the feeling is strong enough and consultants agree a pay uplift of 4% is not enough, we will move to have a full ballot for industrial action.”
How we got here
For years, consultants here have been working harder and longer, with more complex cases in a much more challenging environment, whilst a crisis built in the health service. Despite the significant additional pressures, since 2008/09 our basic pay has experienced real terms (RPI) pay cut of 28.8%.
Coupled with this has been a sustained period of political instability in Northern Ireland which has meant decisions to address workforce gaps, and stabilising and transforming the health service have not been taken, adding to the pressures doctors face.
While we have engaged in good faith with the Doctors and Dentists Pay Review Body (DDRB) for the last 17 years, the recommendations they have made around pay have not always been implemented by government. The actual application of the pay award in Northern Ireland has generally been extremely slow and it has taken months for it to be paid. This is unacceptable and out-with what happens in the other nations.
Colleagues in the Republic of Ireland under the new Sláintecare contract are paid much higher rates than we are in Northern Ireland, which has prompted many colleagues to choose to work across the border.
Following the restoration of the Northern Ireland Assembly in February 2024, the Health Minister said that he intended to apply a pay uplift of 6%, as recommended by the DDRB for the 2023/2024 financial year. This was not paid until June 2024. Part of this deal was the withdrawal of the consultants rate card.
In June 2024 consultants in Northern Ireland voted overwhelmingly in favour of taking strike action over pay. The strength of this vote and subsequent planned strike action brought the Department of Health to the negotiating table. Northern Ireland consultants committee secured a pay offer that was accepted by members in a referendum in August 2024. Part of this deal was the withdrawal of the consultants rate card.
Read the full details of the pay offer
However, this pay deal, and the DDRB-recommended pay uplift of 6% for 2024/25, was not fully implemented in pay packets until March 2025.
After engaging with the Health minister and the department since April of this year, the minister confirmed that although he was minded to accept this year’s DDRB-recommended pay uplift of 4%, he has not secured the funds he says are needed to do so in line with the rest of the UK.
Aside from this, the DDRB recommendation of a 4% uplift does not align with our aim of full pay restoration. We have informed the Department and Minister of our dissatisfaction with the award and advised we are entering into dispute.
Part of this dispute is the re-introduction of the rate card. we would strongly encourage you to ask for those rates for any work you undertake outside of your programmed activities. We will also be coming out to hospitals and running online events to share more information on the rate card and our pay dispute.
View the consultant rate card for Northern Ireland
Pay activists
- Help build a team at your workplace that drives our campaign locally.
- Share your ideas to help BMA Northern Ireland develop our campaign.
- Recruit new BMA members to strengthen our voice calling for full pay restoration.
- Join or start local events, meetings and activities in support of the campaign.
Keep up to date with our campaign on the BMA NI X (Twitter) and Instagram accounts.
