A ballot of Boots pharmacists to settle the ongoing dispute over whether the Boots Pharmacists’ Association (BPA) should continue to represent them in collective bargaining is now “inevitable”, the chief executive of the BPA has told.
However, the timing of the ballot is uncertain as there is now dispute over which pharmacists should be eligible to vote in a ballot. This will be settled by the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) at a hearing that is expected to take place in the week beginning 15 January 2018.
The ballot will be the culmination of a five-year battle by six Boots pharmacists to derecognise the BPA and secure independent representation at work through gaining collective bargaining rights for the Pharmacists’ Defence Association Union (PDAU).
In November 2017, the CAC, which resolves workplace disputes, accepted a legal application by the six Boots pharmacists to dissolve the BPA, triggering a 20-day statutory negotiating period. It meant that if no agreement was reached by the 13 December 2017 deadline, a final decision would be made by ballot. The case is the first to use current laws to try to derecognise a union.
The CAC’s decision in November hinged on whether the PDAU had the explicit support of 10% of Boots pharmacists, known as the bargaining unit, for its application to de-recognise the BPA, and then whether the panel thought it likely that a majority of the bargaining unit would vote for de-recognition in a ballot.
The panel accepted the PDAU’s argument that membership of the PDAU among Boots pharmacists constituted support for de-recognition of the BPA.
The two unions are now in disagreement over which Boots pharmacists belong to the bargaining unit and should be able to vote in the ballot. The BPA asserts that senior managers who are members should get a vote, and the PDAU argues that they should not because the BPA only represents shop floor pharmacists in negotiations with management.
Paul Day, national officer of the PDAU said: “Boots claim that every single person who is a pharmacist is in the group of workers to be involved.” This would include pharmacists working in the marketing department, training managers and even the chief pharmacist, if they were still registered pharmacists, he said.
Paul Robinson, chief executive of the BPA, said the numbers involved were not large but said the argument was over “the democratic principle that we believe that if you are a member of the association you shouldn’t be excluded from voting”.
“In our view it is really important that our members have the right to vote in a ballot that has the fundamental effect on their association or trade union,” he said. “It’s about our agreement with Boots and our agreement is that we represent everybody who is a member of the Association and pharmacists generally.”
“I think the ballot is inevitable,” he added, but he said he did not expect it would take place before the beginning of March 2018 at the earliest.
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