Not sure it's been "used as a scare tactic" as I've not seen or heard it but I know that if my employer treated me with the arrogant disdain that Hunt has I would be away at the first opportunity.
they are. the remaining area of contention is overtime on Saturdays and early weekday evenings. Government want those periods seen as regular hours, BMA want them seen as "unsocial" hours and paid more for working them. right or wrong, that boils down to being about money.
The government is offering extra pay after 5pm
But they have offered to top up the pay by 30% for those who work regular Saturdays - defined as at least one in four
The BMA wants all day Saturday for everyone to be paid at 50% above the basic rate
Agreement has not been reached on on-call allowances, how limits on working hours are to be policed and days off between night shifts
The government has offered a basic pay rise of 13.5%
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-35548091
Not sure I would be fleeing anywhere with a 13.5% basic pay rise.
Seems that way
Junior doctors claim that they already work on weekends and provide a 7 day NHS.
Currently if the weekend days are more expensive to bring these junior doctors in to work, and hospital budgets are quite tight, then there much be a case that hospitals would more likely decide to try to fit in more operations, etc, between Monday and Friday when staffing costs are cheaper rather than being able to spread it out over the full 7 day week - would it mean less stretched resources, better care for those who need treatment (Doctors able to spend more time with a patient?) and savings used to provide more hours cover over a whole week?
As for Saturdays being described as unsociable hours, do (for example) shop workers get extra for working on a Saturday? (a shops busiest day of the week?) - no!
The government is offering extra pay after 5pm
But they have offered to top up the pay by 30% for those who work regular Saturdays - defined as at least one in four
The BMA wants all day Saturday for everyone to be paid at 50% above the basic rate
Agreement has not been reached on on-call allowances, how limits on working hours are to be policed and days off between night shifts
The government has offered a basic pay rise of 13.5%
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-35548091
Not sure I would be fleeing anywhere with a 13.5% basic pay rise.
Isn't it the case that they actually want the existing unsocial hours recognized. Currently I think standard hours are 7am to 7pm Monday to Friday but Hunt wants to change that to 7am to 10pm Mon to Sat. Do you think working 9pm on a Saturday is not unsocial?
Actually they are not - they are willing to scrap some of the 11% increase in basic to allow those that work Saturdays to be paid more.
It probably comes down to the hours that some of them work
I worked evenings / nights at one stage in retail and as most of my basic contracted hours counted as and were paid at a higher rate of pay, making a massive difference to my take home pay. - Had i returned to mainly daytime work, then my pay would have dropped significantly.
There will be Junior Doctors who will be better off (ones that usually worked mainly social hours) some will end up about even (pay rise = lost unsocial hours pay averaged over shifts covered) and some who will lose out (pay increase doesn't cover the losses if most of their working hours were previously paid at the higher unsocial hours rates)
There is (i guess) the fear that the new contract would be seen as something that could lead them to being put into a position where they are asked to mainly work shifts that were covering unsociable hours only (which they weren't doing before) and feel like they are not being rewarded fairly because of the old rates of pay that existed before
Except that a central part of the doctors' argument is that the figures aren't what they appear and that Hunt's press offerings are somewhat disingenuous.
Surely if you want to do more operations then you need to employ more staff to do it or the existing staff have to work longer hours then they already do?
Not necessarily, those operations were going to be done anyway and what changes if when they are carried out. (they would still need the same staffing level to carry it out) but it could mean patients get treated quicker, then they recover quicker and potentially need less time and resources spent on them care costs (before and after the operation is carried out) and that saving can be used to fund extra staff to carry it out / pre & post care, etc)
Plus potential the savings made by using existing facilities more (less need to buy in private healthcare to carry out operations or more buildings to increase how many operations can be done per week) add to the money saved which can be used to provide enough staff for patient care without making only the existing Junior doctors work and therefore extended / dangerous numbers of hours)
Either I'm missing something or that makes no sense. According to you, they still have to carry out more operations with the existing staff before they see any savings which can then be invested in more staff/facilities, if there are savings to be made!
Regardless of your political viewpoint it is crass and clueless behaviour by Jezza.
Alienating an intelligent, highly trained, educated and mobile workforce, who cannot be easily replaced, is a dumb thing to do, even if your dad is an admiral and you used to be head boy at Charterhouse.
Nasty, evil Tory government.