Junior doctors in Wales to stage 72-hour strike in dispute over pay
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Junior doctors in Wales are to stage a 72-hour strike in the new year after voting overwhelmingly in favour of industrial action.
Members of the British Medical Association (BMA) will walk out from January 15 in their long-running dispute over pay.
The BMA said almost every junior doctor who cast a vote (98%) was in favour of industrial action.
Our members have been forced to take this difficult decision because junior doctors in Wales have experienced a pay cut of 29.6% in real terms over the last 15 years
The walkout could see over 3,000 doctors withdraw their labour from Welsh hospitals and GP surgeries across Wales.
The BMA said its Welsh junior doctors committee decided to ballot members in August after being offered a below-inflation pay offer of 5% which it said was the worst in the UK and 1% lower than recommended by the pay review body for doctors and dentists.
Dr Oba Babs-Osibodu and Dr Peter Fahey, co-chairs of BMA Wales’ junior doctors committee, said: “This vote clearly shows the strength of feeling. We are frustrated, in despair and angry and we have voted clearly to say, ‘in the name of our profession, we can’t and we won’t take any further erosion of our pay’.
“Our members have been forced to take this difficult decision because junior doctors in Wales have experienced a pay cut of 29.6% in real terms over the last 15 years.”
