Mark Pitt, Assistant General Secretary of PDA Union explains: “Pharmacy students are eligible for free membership of the PDA right from the start of their pharmacy education and membership remains free until after they register as a pharmacist. All that pharmacy students/trainee pharmacists need to do to access the benefit of membership is sign up online at https://www.the-pda.org/join ”
PDA are constantly campaigning for the future of pharmacy and as such the views of those currently studying or in their trainee pharmacist year are very important to us. Those registering this year are likely to still be practicing well into the second half of this century, so they have the most to lose or gain from the environment that pharmacists operate within and from the employment terms set by employers in the coming years.
Membership benefits include access to training, events, and communications, a helpline manned by experienced pharmacists and lawyers, professional indemnity and legal defence insurance, the PDA Plus range of additional benefits and being part of a not-for-profit organisation run by pharmacists, exclusively for pharmacists. The PDA Union is now the largest individual membership organisation in the sector with over 28,000 pharmacists, trainee pharmacists and pharmacy students
As a democratic, member-lead, organisation joining means individuals get a say within the union and can volunteer and vote for trade union roles. The PDA charity partnership also means that every joiner generates a £1 per year donation to Pharmacist Support, even though membership is FREE for students and pre-registration trainees.
At Boots, thousands of your colleagues are preparing for a postal ballot, in which trainee pharmacists will be entitled to vote. If the vote is successful then the PDA Union will be negotiating for improved employment conditions for trainee pharmacists and pharmacists employed at the company. There will then be opportunities for more members to train as Trade Union and Safety representatives in the workplace.
In a connected ballot last year of employed pharmacists and last year’s trainee pharmacists 87% voted in favour of removing the barrier to PDA Union recognition, but another ballot is now necessary. Unless this next ballot also votes in the union’s favour it will not be able to negotiate for those improvements.
Mark Pitt concludes: “Every year we support hundreds of trainee pharmacists to prepare for their registration assessment and we advise many others on workplace issues they never expected. Academic studies do not always prepare trainees for the realities of a trainee pharmacist year and by joining the PDA for free, trainee pharmacists have ready access to the advice and support they need to help ensure their progress towards registering as a pharmacist goes as smoothly as possible.”