The postal vote is necessary to secure legal “recognition” for PDA Union, to be able to negotiate better terms and conditions for pharmacist and pre-registration pharmacist employees at the company. Ballot papers will be distributed by an independent body using name & address details provided by the company, so it’s essential that that your data is accurate and up to date.
Mark Pitt, Assistant General Secretary of the PDAU explains: “In the vote this summer there were serious concerns about the accuracy of the address data provided by the company. Many individuals did not originally receive ballot papers due to incorrect details provided by the company. Every vote will count because, unless we once again get 40%+ of those eligible to vote actually voting in favour, Boots management will be able to continue to prevent pharmacists from having an independent voice at work.”
We understand that Boots systems don’t allow Pharmacists to update their own contact information and so they need to ask their line manager to do this for them. With pharmacists often moving between stores and having little contact with their manager we therefore encourage everyone to urgently check, and if necessary, update and obtain confirmation that this new information has been saved.
Mark Pitt concluded” “Despite an overwhelming vote of 87% in favour of removing the agreement between Boots and the BPA which the company used to prevent pharmacists having an independent voice, Boots management have still not reached a voluntary agreement with us. We must once again rely on a secret ballot of pharmacists to finally secure negotiating rights for you. Almost 3,000 people voted “Yes” last time but unless they all do so again that first vote will not have secured the outcome they wanted.”
Keeping contact information up to date is of course important to pharmacists wherever they work.
If you have moved recently and not updated the PDA Union, you should let us know too, this can be managed online by logging onto the “my PDA” section of our website.
For more information about the Boots campaign, please visit: www.the-pda.org/boots-recognition/