LONDON (Reuters) -A planned junior doctors’ strike in England will go ahead this week, their trade union announced on Tuesday, saying health minister Wes Streeting had not gone far enough in negotiations to warrant calling off strikes.
Streeting’s letter to the doctors was “lacking any substantive proposal on both pay and non pay elements,” the British Medical Association said in a statement.
The strikes were planned for July 25-30. The government’s health department, which has previously called the strikes “completely unreasonable,” did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for a comment.
Junior doctors in England had voted to strike following the government’s award of a 5.4% pay rise. The union argues this falls far short of the 29% needed to restore their earnings to 2008 levels.
“Our door remains open, and we are glad to have met with the Secretary of State in a constructive spirit. We want to keep talking – but we don’t accept we can’t talk about pay,” BMA co-chairs Melissa Ryan and Ross Nieuwoudt said.
(Reporting by Catarina Demony and Sam Tabahriti, writing by Muvija M, editing by William James)
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