Doctors to vote on taking industrial action for first time since 1975 over pensions

Doctors will start voting today on whether to take industrial action for the first time since the 1970s, in a dramatic escalation of the bitter dispute over the UK government’s controversial public sector pension reforms.

Ballot papers have been sent to 103,000 members of the British Medical Association, with the result due at the end of the month. The BMA has ruled out a complete withdrawal of labour, but if they vote in favour, doctors would not undertake duties that could safely be postponed.

The last time doctors took industrial action was in 1975, when consultants worked to contract, and junior doctors worked to a 40-hour week, because of dissatisfaction with contract negotiations.

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The BMA said higher-paid NHS staff already pay proportionately more for their pensions than other public sector workers, a disparity which it said increased in April when their contributions rose, and which is set to rise again.

It said by 2014, some doctors will see deductions of 14.5 per cent from their pay for their pensions, against 7.35 per cent for senior civil servants on similar salaries, to receive similar pensions.

Doctors currently at the start of their careers would be hardest hit, having to pay double what they would have paid previously in lifetime pensions contributions.

“The BMA is taking this step reluctantly. It has always said it would prefer to find a way forward through negotiation, and that industrial action is very much a last resort,” the association said in a statement.

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