Pharmacists' Defence Association to form a trade union
Members of the Pharmacists' Defence
Association have supported a proposal that the association should form a trade union for pharmacists.
From June 2007, membership renewals sent to PDA members will ask whether
the member also wants to be a member of the new union. Elections for
union
officials and executive members will be held in November, with a view
to having the executive in place by January 2008.
Mark Koziol, PDA chairman, explained to last weekend’s PDA
conference (p253) that a majority of cases in which PDA members sought its help
(54 per cent) involved employment disputes. In many of these, the PDA
member was not allowed to be accompanied by a PDA representative because
company procedures only allowed a fellow employee to attend to help.
He added that many of the larger pharmacy employers actively excluded
PDA representatives and ignored correspondence sent on the members’ behalf.
“We’ve beaten them before and they don’t want us there,” Mr
Koziol said. But union representatives could not be excluded from disciplinary
meetings, so forming a union would overcome the problem.
He confirmed that the PDA would also continue to be a legal defence association.
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