HUNDREDS of workers at the British Medical Association (BMA) began a two-day strike over pay today.

About 50 of the GMB members picketed outside the union’s site in Tavistock Square, central London, saying their real-terms pay had been eroded by between 13 and 16.5 per cent since 2012.

Andrew Jordan, GMB workplace rep at the BMA, said: “For years now BMA staff have played a leading role in supporting BMA members in their pay restoration campaigns, righteous pay restoration campaigns.

“Doctors’ pay has obviously been eroded by a significant extent as you’ll be aware of, and we’ve played a role in supporting that.

“It’s good to see that those same members are then sending messages of support and solidarity to the members of staff here.”

BMA chief executive Rachel Podolak has said that the organisation had increased its original offer of a 2 per cent pay rise to 2.75, plus £1,000 for workers on lower pay, enhanced paid paternity leave and three days more annual leave.

But the GMB is asking for a 6.5 per cent rise for all grades plus an additional consolidated £1,000 increase for lower pay grades and has staged further strikes on April 6 and 7.

Speaking about a potential clash on April 7, Ursula Fuller, BMA senior elections officer and one of the GMB’s executive members, said: “It’s going to be a strange situation.

“They’ll be on their picket line and we’ll be on our picket line.”

Resident doctors in England are to stage their 15th strike and joint-longest walkout in the long-running dispute since 2023, as their real-terms pay remains a fifth down compared to 2008, alongside a shortage of training places.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting told the Commons on Thursday that the union had a week to reconsider his offer, threatening to withdraw plans to expand specialist training places from 1,000 to 4,500.

BMA’s resident doctors committee chairman Dr Jack Fletcher said that it was “misleading” of the minister to claim their pay had risen by 35 per cent over the past four years.

This was “wildly overstating the case” by not taking into account high inflation over the period, he said.