Doctors call off strike threat as pay deal agreed

Doctors on the Isle of Man have called off the threat of strike action after agreeing a new pay deal - with some staff set to receive a 7.5% rise.

The British Medical Association (BMA) last week said 95% of 104 of its 168 eligible members who took part in a ballot had backed staging a walk out in a row over "pay erosion".

However, the union said almost 97% of the 144 members who took part in a poll on the latest offer from Manx Care had voted to accept it.

The deal includes backdated rises for 2025-26 and 2026-27, and an above inflation increase for next year. Manx Care has been contacted for a comment.

Under the deal, senior doctors and dentists will get a 6% pay rise backdated to April 2025 along with an additional 4.65% increase backdated to April this year.

Resident doctors will receive a 7.5% uplift for the 2025-26 along with 6% for 2026-27.

A rise of 1.5% above the September 2026 CPI rate of inflation is set to applied for all groups in 2027-28.

Dr Prakash Thiagarajan, chairman of the Isle of Man Medical Society, said he hoped the agreement would "put us back on the right path to ending the real terms pay cuts that have left colleagues questioning their careers on the Isle of Man".

The union had argued that below inflation rises for doctors had seen pay eroded by 29% since 2008.

Dr Emma Runswick, of the BMA, said: "Delivering care to our communities is what we want to do and that work shouldn't be undervalued or taken for granted by short-sighted financial decisions."

A previous threat of strike action was called off in January 2025 when a deal was agreed for the previous two years.

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