Contract imposition and the opportunity for the BMA Doctors

Jeremy Hunt yesterday in Parliament stated that he would impose the new contract.

There is for the BMA and its 'Junior' Doctors an opportunity here for industrial action which is more effective than strikes as a protracted dispute with work to rule or strikes will reduce public sympathy.

It comes in this simple fact - no contract can be imposed on those possessing the current contract. There has to be a termination of your existing contract in August. The new contract will be laid out and by continuing to work without challenging that contract means you accept the new terms.

It is the space between termination and acceptance that the BMA and its Doctors should exploit.

The BMA should set up an exclusive employment agency for Doctors to join in August at the point of termination of their existing contracts.

The Doctors should then inform their current employers that: they'll be accepting redundancy in August as a result of their contract termination; they'll be expecting the statutory redundancy pay (for those entitled); they'll be joining the employment agency at the point of termination; any work undertaken after the point of termination as a result of shift pattern will be voluntary and not an acceptance of a new contract; any further retention of their services will be through the employment agency and its terms and conditions.

Through collective action, having tens of thousands of Doctors only accessible through this employment agency will impose significant additional costs onto NHS Employers while having to accept significantly better working conditions and practices. What are the NHS Employers going to do? Who else will they find by August?

You "cannot buck the market" as Tories are so fond of saying. This is a market response to the non-market practices of Hunt and co.

By terminating the employment contracts of Doctors, the NHS frees them to organise their lives in a better way for themselves. Exploit that opportunity. Embrace the market and watch the panic rise with NHS executives as their projected budgets and services spiral out of control. By controlling the future, a better settlement can be negotiated today.