A PDA delegation participated in the 107th Biennial General Council Meeting (BGCM) of the GFTU, held at the federation’s Leicestershire headquarters over three days in May. At the meeting each affiliated trade union could propose motions for debate, which, if agreed, are actioned by the GFTU.
The event brought pharmacists together with other trade union members from other professions and sectors, including doctors, podiatrists, social workers, probation and prison staff, professional footballers, civil servants, and others. Many issues discussed, such as employment rights, equality, and the economy, impact all those workers.
It is a unique strength of the PDA in pharmacy that it is also the 20th largest trade union in the UK and so can proactively work with others to influence beyond the boundaries of the sector. This enables the PDA to highlight pharmacists’ issues and to progress their interests via additional routes that are not open to many other organisations.
Fair work
One PDA motion to the BGCM called on governments across the UK to use their position as funders of services provided by private businesses to require contractors to undertake measures such as paying at least the living wage, investing in employee development and recognising trade unions. Such conditions are collectively known as “fair work”. While both the Welsh and Scottish governments have made commitments on promoting fair work, more needs to be done.
The motion, proposed by PDA Union National Executive Committee member Balraj Rai, was supported unanimously, and is now the GFTU policy to also campaign for governments to define fair work, to include that requirement into contracts for delivery of public services and to introduce mechanisms so that employers who take public money but don’t comply with fair work principles face meaningful penalties, up to and including the loss of their contract.
The PDA is constantly supporting pharmacists who have been subject to poor behaviour of employers in Community or Primary Care pharmacy, yet these businesses who are principally funded by the taxpayer seem never to face consequences from the government that funds them no matter how they treat their employees. If that can be changed the treatment of pharmacists and others in those workplaces would improve. As a result of the BGCM the PDA’s efforts to achieve this are now backed by the entire GFTU.
Consequences of role substitution
A second PDA motion addressed protecting the public from the consequences of role substitution in healthcare. The BGCM also voted to support measures including the call for clear scopes of practice to be agreed for each regulated healthcare profession, to protect healthcare workers from being pressured into undertaking activities beyond their competence and to stop junior employees being made to do the same work previously done by better paid roles for less pay. This motion was also supported unanimously.
Get involved
Being a member of the PDA provides many FREE education and other opportunities for pharmacists. Volunteering to be trained as a PDA workplace representative, getting involved in our networks or standing for election to regional or national committees enables even more. Every member is encouraged to make the most of their PDA membership and through that activity even more can be achieved for the profession.
Read more
- GFTU training programme is a benefit of PDA membership for all
- PDA Young members access GFTU development weekend.
- PDA attends STUC
- PDA Education
- Affiliations
Not yet a PDA member?
If you have not yet joined the PDA, we encourage you to join today and ask your colleagues to do the same.
Membership is FREE to pharmacy students, trainee pharmacists and for the first three months of being newly qualified.