HCSA’s Executive voted last night to launch a formal public campaign for higher pay for hospital doctors after considering the results of a week-long member consultation.
This process delivered a clear mandate for the union to act.
Ninety-eight percent of Junior Doctors voting indicated they wished HCSA to mount a public campaign with the goal of pay restoration.
Seventy-five percent of Consultants supported a campaign for an above-RPI inflation rise, with pensions taxation also identified as a central issue.
HCSA’s Executive therefore voted to take the following immediate steps pending the outcome of the annual pay review process:
- To campaign for the reversal of pay erosion for Consultants and other senior grades
- To campaign for pay restoration for Junior Doctors
- To campaign for pension tax reform: including removal of the Annual Allowance in defined benefit schemes, and linking of the Lifetime Allowance to inflation
- To train hundreds of HCSA members to become advocates for change through the Ambassador programme
- To co-ordinate with other health unions.
The Executive will meet following the annual pay announcement, which is expected in the week commencing 18th July, and HCSA will consult members on further steps.
The HCSA Executive is clear that the failure by policy-makers to acknowledge and act to counter the current staffing, retention and recruitment issues is now one of the greatest threats to patient safety and the stability of the NHS. The drastic real-terms erosion of pay and punitive pensions taxation are dual drivers of this workforce crisis.
HCSA shall now make preparations to press forward publicly on these crucial matters.