Joint Statement
On Tuesday 20th October 2020, Boots UK and the Pharmacists’ Defence Association Union (PDAU) held their Joint Consultative Committee (JCC) virtually.
This marks the fourth of our regular consultation meetings relating to the agreed items as defined within the recognition agreement, a copy of which can be found – here. The JCC meets once a quarter.
The JCC focuses on matters for consultation on a collective basis and will not discuss matters relating to individuals. The JCC is not a negotiating forum, anything for negotiation (matters relating to pay, hours or holidays) are discussed at the Joint Negotiating Body (JNB) which meets annually.
The meeting was chaired by Anne Higgins, Director of Stores Pharmacy and was attended by all Regional and Divisional PDAU representatives along with Mark Pitt, Director of Defence Services, Pharmacists’ Defence Association, Paul Moloney, National Officer, Pharmacists’ Defence Association and Helen Lewis, PDAU Reps Network Co-ordinator in attendance.
There was a positive, two-way conversation with feedback provided through Divisional and Regional Trade Union Representatives. The agenda included two standard items for discussion; health and safety and company based training along with pay and hours relating to MyTime. The presenters attended:
- Ray Humphrey, Senior Safety & Governance Manager, provided insights into accident data over the last 12 months as well as an overview of safety inspections
- Iona Blake, Security & Incident Manager gave an overview of security incidents for FY20, an update on Keeping Yourself Safe Campaign, and an overview of the new Safer City Pilot which is being run in Birmingham
- Aimi Dickinson, Senior Professional Support Manager and Claire Nevinson, Senior Manager – Professional Standards and quality discussed the winter flu vaccination service.
- Richard Dunne, Senior Manager, Pharmacy Learning and Development, provided an update on Support Staff training, Pre- Registrants & Provisional Registrants, as well as an overview of the training for the winter flu vaccination service
- Chris Scorer, Development Manager – Mytime, responded to issues that the representatives had raised regarding Mytime.
Through the meeting there was a lot of meaningful discussion and feedback from the PDAU Representatives across the topics discussed.
An overview of the minutes and key actions are available here. The next JCC meeting is scheduled to take place on January 18th, 2021. We will provide regular updates on the progress of actions. For previous meeting minutes click here or for updates on actions to date click here.
Kind regards,
Anne Higgins, Director of Stores Pharmacy, Boots UK
Paul Day, Director, PDA
Boots pharmacists can access the documents referred to above, via the internal Boots live platform.