Agenda for Change moves another step closer
Amicus, the union that includes the Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists, has voted narrowly to accept Agenda
for Change. Just 17,519 of the
union’s 73,849 NHS members eligible to vote accepted AfC; 13,381
rejected it.
Gail Cartmail, Amicus’s national officer for health, said: “This
vote endorses the broad principles of AfC, but the relatively narrow
result indicates there are still problems that need to be resolved.”
She said: “Under the present proposals there will still be winners
and losers, so we regard this [vote] very much as the start, rather than
the end, of the process. We will carry on working closely with our members
and with government to ensure that everyone will benefit from the changes.”
Tony West, president of the guild, was pleased with the vote in favour
of AfC but unsurprised that the outcome was close.
“There was concern among many of the scientists and technologists
in Amicus that their jobs would not be valued under AfC. There was also
little
evidence from early implementer sites on how these roles would be banded,” he
said.
Mr West also commented that, with regard to pharmacy, the issues of unsocial
hours, on-call and the preregistration graduate profile are still subject
to negotiation. Information on how pharmacist members of Amicus voted
is not available.
The NHS Staff Council will meet on 23 November, after which it will announce
its decision on the planned national roll-out of AfC on 1 December. A
further ballot of Amicus members is expected in the future to approve
agreements on the remaining outstanding issues. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
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