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Why formal recognition of the PDA Union by Boots would be good for patients and pharmacists

The road to gaining formal recognition with Boots has been tortuous, with the company expending considerable efforts to prevent its pharmacists being able to negotiate their pay, hours and holidays through a union of their choice.

Fri 23rd May 2014 PDA Union

The road to gaining formal recognition with Boots has been tortuous, with the company expending considerable efforts to prevent its pharmacists being able to negotiate their pay, hours and holidays through a union of their choice.

The PDA Unions application, to have a statutory agreement with Boots to represent pharmacists, initially made in February 2012, has gathered considerable support from Boots pharmacists and has attracted the attention of the legal press, members of parliament and the national media. Boots has fought us every step of the way through the arbitration committee and now the courts.

The current state of play is that the judge presiding over the Judicial Review instigated by Boots has extended a hand and invited the PDAU to ask the High Court to declare the current UK law incompatible with European Human Rights legislation and this will place the issue into the hands of parliament.

Some of you will have read the article by the Guardian Journalist Nick Cohen entitled ‘Homely’ Boots treats its staff like red revolutionaries.’

In the article, he contends that the venture capital company KKR have trebled the value of their initial investment in Boots from around £1bn when it sold 45% of its stake for £4.5bn to the American company Walgreens. He observes “it [Walgreens] doesn’t like trade unions and doesn’t appear to want to deal with them either.”

Walgreens, which has an option to take full control of Boots in 2015, has given its American employee’s reasons why they should not join a Union; Boots have written to all its pharmacists expressing some similar views. Boots claims that it wants to speak directly to pharmacists to get their views and that it already has a relationship with the Boots Pharmacists Association (BPA).

Despite the rhetoric, Boots picks and chooses when it consults with its pharmacists as was evident when it unilaterally cut premium payments for Sunday working. Boots did not consult and was found to have acted unlawfully by the Employment Tribunal. More recently, despite guidance from both the GPhC and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society not to sell unlicensed e-cigarettes, Boots has required its pharmacists to do so. It says its decision has the support of its pharmacists, yet in its recent newsletter, the BPA has stated that the company had completely bypassed them on this topic.

These facts demonstrate exactly why pharmacists need a strong Independent Union to represent them.

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CLICK THE DOCUMENT TO READ THE 10 REASONS THE PDA UNION ASKS YOU TO JOIN THEM AND SUPPORT RECOGNITION

 

Nick Cohen also touched on the issue of professional autonomy and gave reasons for his logic. “On the one hand, the law treats them [pharmacists] as professionals who are personally liable for mistakes in prescriptions and diagnoses. If a patient is given the wrong medicine and suffers, it is their responsibility. On the other, the conglomerates who employ them treat them as staff, “proletarians,” if I may use old-fashioned language, who must obey orders, even though if a mistake happens because the corporation has not given pharmacists the backup they need, the pharmacist rather than conglomerate pays the price.”

Pharmacists who are statutorily responsible for the safety of patients need both independent and professional support when dealing with a corporation whose primary objective is to improve its profits. In our view, this support is essential to helping protect their professional autonomy and consequently the safety of patients.

Nick Cohen also criticised the employer’s role in this collective representation debacle;

“Boots’ private equity owners are so jealous of their profits and contemptuous, arguably, of their workforce that pharmacists must seek a change in the very laws of the land to get the bosses to talk to them.”

Indeed the PDAU has been forced to seek a change in the UK law so that Boots cannot deny the human rights of its pharmacists in being able to negotiate their terms and conditions of employment through a union of their choice. We believe that any arrival of new American owners would make protecting such rights more important than ever.

A recognition agreement protected by statute will provide for effective representation. Boots would be obliged to pay more than lip service. We believe that this will strongly support the aim of balancing more the objective of profit making with that of patient safety as delivered through the greater professional autonomy of pharmacists.

This begs the question for all Boots pharmacists; “What has Boots got to fear from recognising the PDAU?”

The Pharmacists' Defence Association is a company limited by guarantee. Registered in England; Company No 4746656.

The Pharmacists' Defence Association is an appointed representative in respect of insurance mediation activities only of
The Pharmacy Insurance Agency Limited which is registered in England and Wales under company number 2591975
and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (Register No 307063)

The PDA Union is recognised by the Certification Officer as an independent trade union.

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