The Welsh Government has announced that it is accepting the recommendation of the pay review body (DDRB) in full. This means that for the 2025/26 pay year, resident doctors in Wales will receive an uplift in pay of 4% and £750. This works out as a pay uplift of between 5.1% and 6.3%.
This award is unacceptable and makes clear that despite the reforms secured last year, the DDRB is still failing to understand the value of doctors.
This recommendation does not come close to our expectations in terms of providing a clear and timely path to pay restoration. We have already requested an urgent meeting with the Cabinet Secretary for health and social care to discuss this further.
What's happened?
We prepared for and entered pay talks with the Welsh Government in good faith at the beginning of August 2023. Despite the health minister’s commitment to full pay restoration to 2008 levels, the first and final offer to resident doctors for the 2023/24 pay year was an uplift of 5%.
With no other offer forthcoming, we had no option other than to move towards balloting members on taking industrial action. In this ballot an overwhelming majority of members voted in favour of taking industrial action.
As a result of sustained pressure from three rounds of strike action by you, in April 2024, we were invited alongside our colleagues from the SAS and consultant committees in Wales to enter into pay talks. To allow time and space for negotiations to take place, we did not call any further strike action whilst negotiations were ongoing. Early into negotiations, we were able to agree an extension to the ballot mandate for industrial action until September 2024. This gave us the space for talks with the Welsh Government to continue without the need to run a further ballot for industrial action.
An improved pay offer for 2023/24
Following intense negotiations with the Welsh Government, we were pleased that we reached a final offer from the Welsh Government which we recommended you accept. This offer included an extra 7.4% uplift for all resident doctor pay points, bringing the pay award for 2023/24 to 12.4%. Taking into account projected inflation, and pay compounding, this pay award achieved a quarter of pay restoration in one year.
This revised pay offer for 2023/24 also secured a commitment from the Welsh Government to work with us on agreeing changes to the current study budget and study leave system in Wales. As part of the deal, we also achieved a recommitment from Welsh Government and NHS employers to the provisions set out in the NHS Wales fatigue and facilities charter.
We also agreed to re-enter contract negotiations with the Welsh Government with the ambition of reaching an agreement that would be put to members for implementation in 2025/26. We made clear that any renegotiation of the rejected proposals from 2022 must deal with the significant concerns regarding the pay systems and working hours that members raised and include appropriate investment.
Negotiations with NHS Wales employers and the Welsh Government have now begun. We’ll continue to update you throughout with the progress of negotiations.
DDRB (Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration) reforms
In addition to the reforms secured by our colleagues in the UK consultants committee, as part of our negotiations we achieved reforms to the DDRB process in Wales which ensure the actions of the Welsh Government keep pace with the wider reforms to the DDRB terms of reference enacted by UK Government.
A referendum of members was held between 12 June and 26 June. Resident doctors in Wales delivered a clear YES vote, with 96% voting to accept the offer (turnout 73%). The Welsh resident doctors committee therefore confirmed our acceptance of the revised offer for the 2023/24 pay year, bringing the pay dispute to an end.
What’s next in the pay campaign
For the 2024/25 pay year, the Welsh Government announced its acceptance of the pay review body’s (DDRB) recommendations on pay. This means that resident doctors’ pay has increased in the 2024/25 pay year by 6% + £1,000; an in-year uplift of between 7.6% and 9.3% to our pay. This pay award is above the forecast RPI inflation figure for the year and will continue to restore our pay, as outlined in the graph below. It also means that over the last two pay years, we will have received a cumulative uplift of between 20.9% and 22.8%.
In a survey which we launched following the pay award announcement, you told us you were broadly satisfied with the pay award for 2024/25. Because of this, and the fact that this uplift continues our path to full pay restoration, we feel that the time is right to bank this pay uplift, further build up our organising capacity, and look at securing an improved contract for resident doctors working in Wales.
Looking to the next pay year (2025/26), having secured changes to how the DDRB operates, we have for the first time in three years, contributed evidence to the DDRB. We remain committed to achieving full pay restoration and remain willing to call for further industrial action if future pay recommendations and subsequent pay awards by the Welsh Government do not move us towards this.
BMA strike fund - donate now
A strike fund is available to subsidise members in serious financial difficulty who otherwise couldn’t afford to take part in any future rounds of strike action.
The strike fund is supported through voluntary donations to make available to doctors in need.
As of 18 September, all references to junior doctors in BMA communications have been changed to ‘resident doctors’.
Making up nearly 25% of all doctors in the UK, this cohort will now have a title that better reflects their huge range of skills and responsibilities.
Find out more about why junior doctors are now known as 'resident doctors'.
