Junior doctors in Scotland have overwehlmingly voted to accept the Scottish Government's improved pay offer, ending the threat of strike action.
The offer will see eligible medics receive an uplift of 12.4% this year, backdated to April, and a guaranteed pay rise in line with inflation until at least 2026-27.
This replaced a previous pay offer of 14.5% over two years, and will cost taxpayers around £61.3 million.
It means that a junior doctor in their first year of foundation training after medical school will have a starting salary of more than £31,000, rising to over £64,000 for a fully-trained specialist registrar.
READ MORE: Is England really performing better than Scotland when it comes to clearing NHS waiting lists?
Along with the pay increase, the Scottish Government has also committed to a new pay review mechanism.
The BMA Scotland ballot saw 81.64% of members vote in favour of the offer based on a turnout of 71.24%.
The improved pay offer was tabled by the Scottish Government to avert a three-day walkout by junior doctors, who account for 44% of NHS Scotland's medical workforce.
Planned strike action had been due to take place from July 12 to 15, and would have led to thousands of operations and outpatients appointments being cancelled.
Scotland remains the only part of the UK to have avoided industrial action by healthcare workers over the past year.
In England, junior doctors have just completed their fifth round of strike action - a four-day walkout from August 11 to 15 - in protest over a pay award of 6% plus a £1,250 lump sum.
BMA Scotland had argued that years of austerity and sub-inflation pay awards mean that junior doctors in Scotland today are earning 28.5% less in real terms than they were in 2008.
READ MORE: 'Like a slow motion car crash' - Quarter of GPs plan to quit practices within two years
Dr Chris Smith, chair of the BMA's Scottish junior doctors' committee, said pay restoration was now a "shared goal" between the trade union and the Scottish Government, although he conceded that the 12.4% deal was a "compromise" that represents "only a small amount of real terms progress towards fully reversing the 28.5% pay cut we have received since 2008".
He added: “Key to this offer, that sets it apart from what is happening elsewhere in the UK, is that the Scottish government recognises this reality and has agreed to ongoing negotiations towards full pay restoration to 2008 levels, with an unprecedented commitment to set inflation as the floor of the pay offer at each round of negotiation.
"This structure will maintain the momentum of our campaign in Scotland for full pay restoration over the next few months and into next year.
"If sufficient progress towards full pay restoration is not made at the next round of negotiations or should the Scottish Government not follow through with any elements of its offer, we will not hesitate to ballot our members again and take strike action, should it be required.
"We have demonstrated our power – and no-one should be in any doubt about how strong we are as a collective or what we can deliver when we stand together."
Health Secretary Michael Matheson welcomed the result of the ballot.
He said: "This is the single biggest investment in junior doctor pay since devolution, and maintains our commitment to make Scotland the best place in the UK for junior doctors to work and train.
“Due to the meaningful engagement we have had with trade unions, we have avoided any industrial action in Scotland - the only part of the UK to avoid NHS strikes.
“We will now implement this pay uplift, and will work with BMA to take forward the other aspects of the deal including contract and pay bargaining reform.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel