The BMA's Staff and Associate Specialist [SAS] Committee has voted to ballot SAS doctors on the acceptability of a new contract. The proposals were negotiated with representatives of NHS Employers.

In July of this year the Committee decided against balloting SAS doctors as it did not believe the proposed contract at that time did enough to improve career progression for its members.

The SAS Committee is adopting a neutral position on the deal but believes some clarification on several key issues means that members should now have the choice to vote on the proposals. This clarification work with NHS Employers is continuing and both organisations are hoping to reach a joint agreement soon with a view to presenting proposals to ministers.

The timetable for the ballot would be as follows:

* SASC/NHS Employers will present joint proposals to ministers for approval.
* During November and December of this year road shows will take place around the country to inform SAS doctors about the proposals and the voting process.
* At the turn of the year, all SAS doctors will be balloted.
* In the event of a 'yes' vote, the contract will be implemented UK-wide.

Mr Mohib Khan, the chairman of the BMA's SAS Committee, says: "While this deal is not perfect by any means, it offers some improvement on the current arrangements for many SAS doctors. My colleagues must now make up their own minds, and we will give them all the information they need to do so."

Also, Mr Mohib Khan was re-elected unopposed as SASC chairman and Dr Ashok Pathak was elected as chairman of the SASC negotiating subcommittee.

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Notes:

There are around 12,500 SAS doctors in the UK

* Basic elements of the proposals are as follows:
* A new grade would be created, in which salary would start at £34,131 and rise to a maximum of £64,512 (including the April 2006 pay rise)
* The current associate specialist (AS) grade would be closed to new entrants
* Doctors currently working in the AS grade would remain in it
* Doctors working in the old staff grade would be given a window of opportunity to re-grade to AS
* The pay scale for associate specialists would start at £48,217 and rise to a maximum of £80,040 (including the April 2006 pay rise)
* It is estimated that across all SAS doctors, typical pay rises would range from 6% to 12%.
* Discretionary and optional points would be incorporated into basic pay
* Doctors in the new grade and those remaining in the associate specialist grade would both be employed on a 40 hour week made up of 10 programmed activities, supplemented by payments for work out of hours, and supported by a job plan
* The proposed new grade would be divided into three levels by two thresholds. A series of automatic annual increments would take doctors to the first threshold, which most doctors would cross
* Progression would be related to a doctor's job plan and appraisal and framework of the new contract is intended to facilitate access to training
* All work out of hours would be paid at time and a third
* Doctors working on on-call rotas would be paid a supplement, the size of which would depend on the frequency of their on call duties
* Doctors whose on call duties are more frequent than or equal to one in four would be paid an 6% salary supplement
* Doctors whose on call duties are between one in four and one in eight would be paid a 4% salary supplement
* Doctors whose on call duties are less than one in eight would be paid a 2% supplement
* All doctors would have the option to remain on their old contracts, and pay protection would be in place for those who were financially worse off under the new contract.


For further information please go to:
British Medical Association
Source:
BMA News, the membership magazine of the British Medical Association