The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrea Jenkyns on 2016-09-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many amendments to the proposed junior doctors’ contract the (a) British Medical Association and (b) management side accepted during negotiations on the November 2015 contract offer.
Mr Philip Dunne
The British Medical Association (BMA) have made five concessions overall. The management side have made 107 concessions overall. These concessions included a number of substantial shifts of position to meet concerns expressed by the BMA including for instance increasing the additional pay received for working at weekends.
(a) The BMA made one concession in relation to the November 2015 offer during the initial ACAS talks, before the commencement of negotiations which ended in February 2016 with no agreement. This was to accept a move from incremental progression to a nodal pay system.
They made further concessions (including in relation to the March 2016 contract), in the agreement reached in May 2016. These were:
(i) Agreement to the extension of plain-time working by two hours per day, with a system of weekend allowances based on the frequency of weekend working for those working more than six weekends a year;
(ii) Accepting the principle of fidelity to the National Health Service, offering locum work at an agreed hourly rate;
(iii) Agreeing a change to the March 2016 contract to reduce from 48 to 46 hours rest period after consecutive night shifts, amended to improve work life balance and continuity of care; and
(iv) Agreeing to remove the rule in the March 2016 contract preventing consecutive weekend working – while retaining a rule that the frequency of weekend working can be no more than 1 in 2 weekends – to allow greater flexibility for doctors and employers.
(b) The November 2015 offer itself had included two concessions in relation to the recommendations made by the Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration. In the ACAS agreement, the BMA accepted this November offer as the basis for negotiations. The management side then made a further 105 concessions: four during ACAS talks, 61 during negotiations that ended in February 2016, six after those negotiations ended, and 34 during negotiations in May 2016.
