The Services Industrial Professional Technical Union (SIPTU) contacted the PDA Union last year because a number of its members were affected by Alliance Boots’ decision to cut premium rates for Sunday working. The PDA Union shared information about its approach to the case and when it won the employment tribunal SIPTU had around 250 claims in the Northern Ireland Tribunal system. Boots applied the judgement from the employment tribunal to Northern Ireland so that 250 SIPTU members benefited from the PDA Union victory.
Mark Pitt, assistant general secretary of the PDA Union comments: “Both the PDA Union and SIPTU are concerned that Boots’ premium pay cuts are something that will continue next year and that there will be further erosions of pharmacists’ pay and benefits. We have agreed to progress union membership as much as possible in Northern Ireland because it’s better to have a fully unionised workforce than a partially unionised one.”
An informal agreement was made on joint working between the PDA Union and SIPTU following a meeting last week. SIPTU represents over 200,000 workers from virtually every category of employment across almost every sector of the Irish economy.