The Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA) announced last week (December 29) that in 2023 members who were “treated badly by their employers” received a “a six-figure total” in settlements.
The union explained that settlement agreements are “a way of resolving a dispute between an employer and an employee without having to go through an employment tribunal hearing”.
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The PDA said that last year cases where employees agreed to “settle their potential claims” and employers agreed “to pay compensation” saw some of their members receiving individual payments of “more than £125,000”.
PDA director Paul Day told C+D today (January 2) that “the final figure secured in 2023 was £526K”.
An unusually “high figure”
He said that last year’s total was “unusual in that it is such a high figure”.
He added the figure had increased by a “couple of hundred thousand” compared to 2022's total.
Mr Day said the increase could be explained by the union’s “record membership level with more than 37,000 members now” or that it could reflect “that there has been more bad treatment of pharmacists” over the last year.
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He added that it could also be “a combination of the two”, or that “more badly treated pharmacist are PDA members”.
“Nobody should be badly treated by their employer,” he stressed, adding that “a great new year resolution for non-union members would be to join a union today”.
“Suffered physically and mentally”
The PDA said that these settlements “often requires months of hard work by the PDA’s employment team”.
It added that “in some cases” its members “suffered physically and mentally due to their employment situation”.
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PDA director of defence services Mark Pitt said that due to “confidentiality agreements” the union is “restricted from discussing the identity of the employer or the detail of how they mistreated the pharmacist”.
Confidentiality clauses “does mean that other pharmacists may not be aware of the potential mistreatment they could face in their employment”, he added.
He stressed that support in “resolving specific workplace disputes for individuals is only available to those who were PDA members before their issue arose”.
