{"id":8470,"date":"2019-03-12T15:09:18","date_gmt":"2019-03-12T15:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/boots-pharmacists-vote-to-recognise-new-union\/"},"modified":"2019-03-12T15:09:18","modified_gmt":"2019-03-12T15:09:18","slug":"boots-pharmacists-vote-to-recognise-new-union","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/boots-pharmacists-vote-to-recognise-new-union\/","title":{"rendered":"Boots pharmacists vote to recognise new union"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div property=\"articleBody\">\n<figure class=\"media-landscape has-caption full-width lead\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><\/p>\n<p>                <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"js-image-replace\" alt=\"Boots sign outside store\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/320\/cpsprodpb\/180B6\/production\/_99468489_b4.jpg\" width=\"976\" height=\"549\"\/><\/span><figcaption class=\"media-caption\"><span class=\"off-screen\">Image caption<\/span><br \/>\n                <span class=\"media-caption__text\"><br \/>\n                    Boots is the largest pharmacy company in Europe and the US<br \/>\n                <\/span><br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">Boots pharmacists have voted &#8220;overwhelmingly&#8221; for a new union to have recognition amid concerns they are overworked.<\/p>\n<p>Several pharmacists have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-england-nottinghamshire-41468171\" class=\"story-body__link\">previously told the BBC<\/a> that understaffing could pose a risk to patients.<\/p>\n<p>The Pharmacists&#8217; Defence Association (PDA) will now be able to collectively bargain on pay, hours and holidays.<\/p>\n<p>Boots said it was &#8220;not the result that we had hoped for&#8221; but it had &#8220;listened to the voice&#8221; of its pharmacists.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/live\/uk-england-nottinghamshire-47531542\" class=\"story-body__link\">Latest news and stories from the East Midlands<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The PDA union had been trying to get recognition at Boots for eight years.<\/p>\n<p>In order to finally do this they had to de-recognise a non-independent union called the Boots Pharmacists&#8217; Association. This happened following a vote last year.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape has-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><\/p>\n<p>            <\/span><figcaption class=\"media-caption\"><span class=\"off-screen\">Image caption<\/span><br \/>\n                <span class=\"media-caption__text\"><br \/>\n                    The first Boots store opened in Nottingham in 1849 and ibuprofen was invented at the company&#8217;s site in Nottingham<br \/>\n                <\/span><br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Mark Pitt, assistant general secretary of the PDA, said: &#8220;Boots pharmacists have told us over the years their terms and conditions have gradually been eroded.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That sort of created a momentum for us to become recognised at Boots.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s an overwhelming vote and we are hopeful that will give a clear message to the company that things do need to change and they need to start listening to their pharmacists.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Of the 6,803 pharmacists eligible to vote, 3,229 voted for the PDA to be recognised and 266 voted against. Almost half of those eligible did not vote.<\/p>\n<p>Andrew Caplan, pharmacy and retail operations director for Boots UK, said: &#8220;We will now enter into a negotiation with the PDA over the terms of the collective bargaining agreement, how it will work and what it will cover and we&#8217;ll continue to keep our pharmacists updated on this process over the coming weeks.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>About 2,500 Boots pharmacists are members of the PDA union and about 1,200 are members of the Boots Pharmacists&#8217; Association.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption body-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><\/p>\n<p>            <\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p><i>Follow BBC East Midlands on <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bbceastmids\/\" class=\"story-body__link-external\">Facebook<\/a><i>, on <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bbcemt\" class=\"story-body__link-external\">Twitter<\/a><i>, or on <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/bbceastmidlands\/\" class=\"story-body__link-external\">Instagram<\/a><i>. Send your story ideas to <\/i><a href=\"mailto:eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk\" class=\"story-body__link-email\"><span class=\"icon email\"\/><span class=\"story-body__link-email-text\">eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk<\/span><\/a><i>.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"http:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async defer src=\"https:\/\/platform.instagram.com\/en_US\/embeds.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-england-nottinghamshire-47536384\">Source<\/a> by <a href=\"\">[author_name]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image caption Boots is the largest pharmacy company in Europe and the US Boots pharmacists have voted &#8220;overwhelmingly&#8221; for a new union to have recognition amid concerns they are overworked. Several pharmacists have previously told the BBC that understaffing could pose a risk to patients. The Pharmacists&#8217; Defence Association (PDA) will now be able to &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8471,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}