British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak during a press conference on July 13, 2023 in London (POOL/AFP/HENRY NICHOLLS)
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has urged, with mixed success, civil service unions to end strikes and accept the government’s last pay raise offer, on the first day of an unprecedentedly long strike among doctors.
After announcing that the government accepted the recommendations of independent bodies on the salaries of civil servants, the conservative leader stressed that the proposed increases, of 5 to 7% depending on the sector, were the latest.
“There will be no more salary discussions,” Rishi Sunak said. “We will not negotiate again” and “no strike will change our decision”, he warned during a press conference.
The increases announced are in particular 6.5% for teachers – who have announced the suspension of their movement – 7% for the police, 6% for certain hospital doctors and 5% for the military.
Teachers’ unions have announced that they are suspending their upcoming strikes. Mr. Sunak, on the other hand, failed to convince in the health sector.
To finance these increases, Rishi Sunak ruled out borrowing or raising taxes and spoke of “reprioritizations”, raising fears of cuts in public spending.
“Junior doctors” demonstrate outside Saint Thomas Hospital on July 13, 2023 in London (AFP / HENRY NICHOLLS)
In particular, he announced the increase in the cost of visas and the amount paid by immigrants to access the public health system, to garner one billion pounds sterling (1.17 billion euros).
In response, a migrant aid organisation, Praxis, accused the government of treating those who were not born in the UK as “cash cows”.
The United Kingdom, which has 5.8 million civil servants, has seen an increase in strikes in the private and public sectors in recent months due to wage demands in the face of inflation. This rose in May to 8.7% over one year, a record among the G7 countries.
– “Weakened” right to strike –
Junior doctors, who make up about half of hospital doctors, ranging from young doctors just out of university to practitioners with more than eight years’ experience, began a new strike in England at 07:00 (06:00 GMT) Thursday, until Tuesday.
“Junior doctors” demonstrate outside Saint Thomas Hospital on July 13, 2023 in London (AFP / HENRY NICHOLLS)
This is their longest continuous strike in the history of the NHS, the British public health service, which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, according to the BMA (British Medical Association) union.
The “consultants”, more qualified doctors, have filed a strike notice for July 20 and 21.
The 6% proposal, which the BMA says is a pay cut in real terms, is “exactly why so many doctors feel they have no choice” but to strike, Phil Banfield replied , one of the leaders of the union, deploring a “missed opportunity”.
The NHS, to which the British are very attached, is going through a deep crisis, weakened by austerity policies and the consequences of the pandemic.
According to BMA figures, some 7.42 million people were awaiting treatment in England in April, with just over 3 million patients waiting for more than 18 months.
– “Last chance” –
“The NHS has worked thanks to the goodwill (of its staff) and now is the last chance to change that”, judged Arjan Singh, 27-year-old doctor, participating in a picket Thursday morning in London in front of the University CollegeHospital.
Protest for fairer pay outside Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital on April 12, 2023 in London (AFP/Archives/Daniel LEAL)
With thousands of vacancies already in the NHS, some of his colleagues are considering going overseas, he added.
The BMA says junior doctors have lost 26% of pay in real terms since 2008, when an austerity package was imposed on the health service.
In a statement released just before the strike began, Health Minister Steve Barclay called the 35% increase posed as the union’s starting position “unreasonable”.
In addition, the unions won a legal victory on Thursday, after challenging a law authorizing the use of temporary workers to replace striking employees. The High Court in London ruled in favor of more than ten unions who considered that this law “weakened the right to strike”.
© 2023 AFP
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