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Agenda for Change
The Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists is addressing concerns
From Mr D. Thornton, MRPharmS
I would like to comment regarding inequality issues arising from Agenda
for Change (PJ, 15 April, p441). The ethos of Agenda for Change is equal pay for
jobs of equal value. The value of the job is determined by a process looking
at 16 weighted factors. This means that people doing different jobs may be
paid the same salary if they are evaluated to the same pay band.
I would certainly question whether or not the previous structure had worked
well in pharmacy for the past decade. There were numerous examples of “grade
drift” and of similar jobs being differently graded long before Agenda
for Change came into being.
One important point is that no pharmacist, or indeed technician, should be
on pay protection when Agenda for Change takes effect. Annex R of the final
terms and conditions handbook covers recruitment and retention premia where
there is evidence of difficulties in recruiting nationally.
Pharmacists (and medical technical officers) are listed in the groups covered
by this. This clearly states that recruitment and retention premia should
be used at assimilation for pharmacists and medical technical officers and
not pay protection if, upon assimilation, the new pay is less than existing
pay. The importance of this is that the annual pay award is applied to basic
pay in this situation whereas if an employee is on pay protection it is not.
Therefore any pharmacist who has been placed on pay protection should query
this locally.
I would agree that there are major concerns nationally around the consistency
of job evaluation. Since this is a terms and conditions of employment issue,
it clearly falls within the remit of the Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists to
address this and not the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. Indeed the guild is
actively trying to collect as much information as possible around outcomes
following job evaluation to determine to what extent this is actually a problem.
Those pharmacists who are members of the guild can find excellent information
on a number of topics around Agenda for Change on the guild
discussion forum
Dave Thornton
Vice-Chairman, Terms and Conditions Committee
Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists
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