Unions 21 is a forum for unions to explore our shared challenges, by working collaboratively to develop practical projects and ideas which build tomorrow’s union leadership and organisation. The forum brings together unions from across the public and private sector to learn from each other.
On the webinar panel with the PDA Director were Paul W Fleming, the General Secretary of Equity, the union for Actors and other creative performers and Phillipa Childs the Head of BECTU who represent technical professionals in the media and creative industries, such as Camera Operators, Sound Engineers, etc.
Paul Day said: “Locum pharmacists are a critical part of the pharmacy profession and a highly valued section of the PDA’s membership. We were delighted to be invited to talk with other trade unions to share our best practice and emphasis the importance of representing those individuals who are self-employed”
PDA’s work on matters such as fighting remote supervision, improving safety and increasing the general profile of the profession benefit all pharmacists. Similarly, all PDA members can participate in our Equality networks, the PDA Plus benefits package, PDA education and our other activity. Members can also be victim of bullying, discrimination or other unacceptable treatment at work regardless of their employment status.
However on occasion, due to their different employment status, locum and employed pharmacist will have different rights and the PDA work equally hard using whatever options are available to each member to try and achieve their desired outcome. Some recent examples of PDA activity specifically for locum members includes supporting members to secure unpaid locum fees from contractors, a situation that sadly seems to be on the increase, defending Locums right to negotiate their own rates and throughout this pandemic championing the use of locums to NHS and other employers.
Paul Day added “One of my key messages to the webinar is that while some members may be exclusively self-employed, PDA also has many members who have a portfolio career mixing employed contracts with regular or periodic locum work. We aim to enable our members to receive fair and lawful treatment at work no matter under what contractual status that work is undertaken.
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