Sell assets before raising fees, says PDA
Selling assets, or some other alternative, should be considered by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society as a way of addressing its staff pension fund deficit, the Pharmacists' Defence Association has said. The deficit should not be resolved by increasing membership fees.
Responding to the Society’s recently concluded fees consultation,
the PDA said that any fee increases should not be applied equally across
all membership sectors. Pharmacists who are semi-retired, part-time,
newly qualified or on maternity leave are under a greater financial burden
than other pharmacists, so any fee increases should reflect this, the
association argued, saying that any civilised society should look after
its least advantaged members.
The association also said that the Society should critically review the “largely
unnecessary and burdensome” processes used by the fitness to practise
directorate in its handling of disciplinary cases before it considered
any form of fee increase.
John Murphy, PDA director, said: “The PDA has publicly stated that
it seeks to support the Society in its transition from a dual role body
into that of a professional leadership body for pharmacists. However,
if the Society is to persuade pharmacists to join once it becomes a voluntary
organisation then it must first learn how to become membership focused.”
He added: “The membership will never accept fee increases unless
they can be justified on the grounds of improvements in member benefits
and this, currently, is simply not the case. The new leadership body
will need to learn lessons in the way it communicates with its membership.”
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