If the government was deliberately trying to encourage union militancy, it could not be making a better job of it. It is reported that junior doctors – or ‘resident doctors’ as we are now supposed to call them for fear of implying that they might be less qualified than consultants who have been doing their jobs for 40 years – could be in line for a pay rise of five per cent this year. This would be on top of the 22 per cent they were awarded last year. Meanwhile, nurses, who had a pay rise of 5.5 per cent last year, appear to be on course for a rise of no more than 2.8 per cent. Inflation, to put these figures into context, is currently running at 2.6 per cent.
Can the government risk continuing to award much greater pay rises to junior doctors than to nurses?
What have junior doctors done, and nurses not done, to deserve such a generous rise? They went on a prolonged strike, that’s what.
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