The government offered the BMA a package of measures last month in a bid to end the dispute – although the union has said elements of it were watered down at the last minute.
It included covering out-of-pocket expenses, such as exam fees, faster pay progression through the five salary bands that span resident doctor training and extra speciality training posts that doctors move into after year two following graduation.
The first tranche of these – 1,000 of them – were meant to be created this summer. But the government has now withdrawn those after the BMA announced it was taking strike action. It comes after 30,000 applicants applied for 10,000 jobs last summer, although some of these were foreign doctors.
The government maintains it will not negotiate on pay after giving resident doctors the most generous pay rises in the public sector.
They have just received a 3.5% pay rise, but this is something that has been given to all doctors as part of the annual pay review process.
It means starting salaries are now just over £40,000, with the most senior doctors getting £76,500 in basic pay. Resident doctors can earn thousands more each year for things like working at unsocial times and doing additional hours.
The government has also challenged the claim that pay is a fifth lower than it was in 2008. That is based on a measure of inflation called RPI that tends to be higher than others. The BMA say it is justified because that is what the government uses to add interest to student loans.
Meanwhile, the BMA’s staff are themselves taking strike action.
Members of the GMB union, which includes admin staff, press officers and negotiators, are in the middle of a two-day strike over pay.
They have been offered a 2.75% pay increase this year – and say pay has fallen 17% since 2012 once inflation is taken into account.