Asda pharmacists at “some stores” who refuse to “align to [Asda’s] new model” have been offered redundancy, according to documents seen by C+D.
The move comes after the supermarket offered pharmacists a one-off payment of £1,000 to change “voluntarily” to a model of compressed contracted hours in June.
At the time, Asda pharmacists warned that the change posed “very serious” risks to patient safety and advised that colleagues “stick to [their] contracts”.
Read more: ‘Refuse to engage’: New Asda contracts pose risk to patient safety, staff warn
But now Asda documents have revealed that “after a thorough analysis” the supermarket has concluded “that the new model is the right decision for the future”.
Asda said that between June and October “179 pharmacies implemented the new model…around 75% of pharmacists” – leaving 59 stores which did not “because one or more pharmacists in those sites did not agree to the change voluntarily”.
Concerns “ignored”
The document laid out “two scenarios that might impact” pharmacies that had not agreed voluntarily to the change.
“In some stores, there is a requirement for reduction in hours in the pharmacy in order to move to the new way of working” – “redundancy would be a last resort”, it said.
“In other stores…we will be holding further informal meetings with pharmacists to ask them to support the new model by voluntarily moving onto the new terms and conditions of employment,” it added.
Read more: New pharmacist contract ‘in effect an increase in pay’, Asda says
“We will endeavour to retain as many pharmacists as possible during this process,” it said.
Asda also revealed that “the £1,000 thank you payment was for pharmacists who voluntarily signed up during the informal process…which ended on September 30”, and that the one-off payment “is not proposed for pharmacists who did not agree…earlier”.
It said that managers began “talking to colleagues during November with the view of implementing the new model on Saturday January 4”.
Read more: Asda pays pharmacists incentive to accept reduced hours
An anonymous Asda pharmacist last month told C+D that the supermarket had effectively told employees that “either you accept these terms or go”.
“The concerns with patient safety regarding these long hours is being ignored it seems with these terms,” they added.
And Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA) director Paul Day told C+D that ”PDA members with any concerns about this should contact the PDA Service centre where our team will be able to advise on specific situations”.
“As always, the PDA can let members understand their rights at work and how too exercise those rights”, he added.
“A rapidly changing market”
A spokesperson this week (December 17) told C+D that Asda is “making changes to the way that Asda pharmacies operate to ensure that we continue to provide customers with trusted professional advice in a rapidly changing market”.
They stressed that the new model sees Asda align with the rest of the wider market.
“These changes include adjusting opening hours and working patterns so that more pharmacy colleagues are available at the busiest times of day,” they added.
Read more: Asda makes 475 staff redundant amid return-to-office mandate
“Whilst most of our pharmacy colleagues are now working in this new structure, we have now begun individual consultations with colleagues who have not yet switched to the new working patterns in a small number of our pharmacies,” they said.
Asda told C+D that it has now entered into individual consultations with 38 colleagues in 16 stores.
It stressed that this is 38 of some 357 pharmacy colleagues, and 16 of 242 Asda pharmacies.
Read more: Asda pharmacy set to close amid drop in footfall and locum ‘staffing gaps’
Meanwhile last month, the Supermarket revealed that some 475 head office redundancies were part of Asda’s new strategy “to remove duplication and simplify structures”.
It also announced that “from January 2025”, Asda will require “every home office colleague to be present in an Asda office location - Asda House, George House, Britannia House - for a minimum of three days per week”.
