The British Medical Association is facing a strike over pay by its own clerical staff, prompting calls of hypocrisy as NHS resident doctors in England launch five days of strike action with the union’s backing.
Talks between the BMA and the GMB union failed to come to a resolution on Tuesday, raising the prospect of a strike by clerical and administrative staff at the health union in the new year, sources said.
It is understood that GMB, which represents 75% of the internal staff at the BMA, are “getting ballot ready”, in reference to the prospect of getting backing for a strike.
The BMA said it was facing “extremely challenging financial constraints” but offering above market rates of pay.
As it sought to talk down the demands of its own staff on Tuesday, a second team of negotiators also failed to reach terms with the health secretary, Wes Streeting, over the demands of resident doctor members.
Resident doctors, previously known as junior doctors, and who represent nearly half of the doctors working in the NHS, started their strike action on Wednesday morning and will remain away from work until 7am on Monday.
The industrial action will be the 14th strike that resident doctors have staged since March 2023.
The GMB has described the BMA’s actions as hypocritical. A formal dispute was launched by the GMB in November after the BMA offered a below inflation 2% pay rise.
At the same time, the BMA was heavily criticising the government for saying it could only afford a pay rise of 2.5%.
The GMB claims that since 2012, BMA staff have suffered pay erosion of nearly 17% as a result of years of below-inflation pay awards.
A survey of GMB members working at BMA found more than 91% would be in favour of taking industrial action. The BMA has since offered no “meaningful movement on a consolidated pay rise of 2% and only offered minor improvements”, according to the GMB.
This included an increase to the non-consolidated payment from £1,250 to £1,500 and an additional day’s leave at Christmas.
The BMA claims the overall cash impact of the pay award ranges from 3.2% to 16.31%, with the additional days off representing a further 1.2%. The GMB disputes these figures, as they include both consolidated and non-consolidated pay which they claim the BMA would never accept for doctors.
The GMB also claims that the real-terms pay increase ranges between 1.90% to 1.98% compared with 2025 total pay.
A GMB spokesperson said: “It’s disappointing that BMA management are now resorting to placing a percentage pay value on Christmas days off. Perhaps the ghost of Christmas future is lurking in the corridors of BMA House, the site of Charles Dickens’ former home.
“We remain committed to seeking a credible offer to reflect inflation and a resolution to address years of pay erosion, just as resident doctors are rightly doing for their own pay.”
The BMA’s chief executive, Rachel Podolak, said it was offering “above market rates for comparable organisations” and they were facing pressures on their budgets.
She said: “Against some extremely challenging financial constraints, we have worked hard to improve our offer to our staff. This enhanced package delivers an affordable in-year uplift for 2026, and it also includes some tangible benefits that go beyond salary alone and we believe these are important to the work life balance and wellbeing of all our staff.”
• This article was amended on 17 December 2025. An earlier version said that the BMA was heavily criticising the government “over a pay offer to doctors of 2.5%”; in fact the criticism was for the government saying it could only afford a pay rise of 2.5%.
