JUNIOR DOCTORS ARE the latest public sector pay workers to threaten industrial action in a dispute over a ‘living out allowance’.

Non-Consultant Hospital Doctors have been in an ongoing dispute with the government over the withdrawal of the €60-a-week payment in 2012.

The Irish Medical Organisation represents the junior doctors and claims that the living out allowance was not paid despite it being part of a contract with employers.

A High Court case against the government is pending over the dispute and negotiations are set to resume next week.

Despite this, the IMO has come out to say that it will support junior doctors should they decided to go on strike over the dispute.

Speaking this evening, IMO president Dr John Duddy says that the government’s pay policies are already leading to a shortage of doctors.

“We already have too few doctors in this country to deliver adequate services to patients yet government have consistently ignored the fact that if you breach contracts and deliberately create a policy that disrespects and devalues doctors they will simply choose to work for countries that value them,” he says.

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