Industrial action
We campaign for fair pay for all dentists, a mandate which stretches from negotiating with Government to organising strike action when other routes have been exhausted
Fair pay for hospital dentists in England
We are continuing our campaign for fair pay for hospital dentists. In recent years, that has seen us work with the BMA to take strike action and to negotiate pay deals with Government.
This year’s recommended pay uplift for all hospital dentists does not redress the pay erosion that has been experienced since 2008-9. We therefore re-entered into dispute with Government regarding resident, consultant and SAS dentists' pay in England.
We have strongly urged Government to commence negotiations with the BMA to deliver fair pay for all hospital doctors and dentists and avoid a furtherance of this dispute.
Ballot ready
In pursuing this campaign, we may need to ballot you for strike action; we are getting ballot ready.
We are aware that the BMA is conducting a ballot of its resident doctor members in England and an indicative ballot of their SAS and consultant doctor members.
If you are a hospital dentist – resident, consultant, or SAS - we need you to have your say on potential industrial action and get ballot ready by providing your details.
Your response to our survey will help inform our next steps, so don’t lose your voice and your vote on the future of our campaign for fair pay.
The BMA ballot and the BDA ballot
Trade unions are required by law to ballot their members independently. Even though hospital dentists and doctors work on the same contracts, the BDA and BMA will need to conduct separate ballots.
Only those who are dual qualified and members of both the BDA and BMA will be balloted by both unions.
It is vital to confirm your information and secure your voice now if you are a resident dentist, SAS, or consultant dentist
We may decide to ballot our hospital dentist members for strike action. To be able to include you in the ballot, we need to confirm:
- That you work on a hospital contract
- What your job title is
- The name of your workplace and employer.
While you complete this vital information, we also want to know what you think about this pay dispute and potential strike action.
Secure your voice now as a resident dentist, SAS or consultant dentist.
Industrial action FAQs
Industrial action can include strike action (which is any concerted stoppage of work) or action short of strike action such as 'go-slows' or 'working to rule'.
There is a legal requirement on trade unions that they must ballot the relevant members in order to secure a mandate for industrial action. Unions cannot call a strike without having done so.
A strike ballot secures a successful mandate if 50% of the members balloted vote and, of these, the majority vote in favour of taking strike action. If turnout in the ballot is below 50% the union cannot call strike action, even if the members who did participate voted to strike. If a mandate is secured it is valid for six months, after which the union must reballot members to secure a fresh mandate to continue striking.
Trade unions are also required to conduct industrial action ballots by post, and they must be arranged by an independent scrutineer, rather than the union itself.
No, the BDA only has a mandate to call on members to strike at trusts where we have a mandate. Our formal ballots were conducted with specific groups of members and provides us with a mandate for strike action only at eligible trusts or employers for a six-month period.
We run ballots for a specific period, with an independent scrutineer counting and verifying the results. We cannot run ad-hoc votes. There are a range of legal requirements we need to comply with to run a ballot.
We will reballot members every six months, as required by law, while the dispute over fair pay continues. Therefore, we would encourage members to ensure they have updated their details so that we know their job role, employer and workplace. This will enable us to make sure they are informed about future ballots.
The BDA conducts its ballots on a trust-by-trust basis and, as a result, we only have a mandate to call you to take strike action in specific trusts (the NHS trust you are employed by).