At the annual general meeting of the NHS Staff Side Council, which is the group of unions representing over 1 million NHS employees, the existing members voted to support the PDA’s full membership application. The constitution was therefore updated to include the PDA Union as a full voting member and NHS employers and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) have been advised.
This is a significant moment in the history of the PDA Union, which now provides an effective and independent voice at work exclusively for more than 40,000 of the UK’s pharmacists.
The NHS Staff Council covers all employees on Agenda for Change (AfC) contracts. The PDA is also a member of the national Social Partnership Forum (SPF) chaired by a government minister, where employers, government, and unions progress employment and workplace issues relating to NHS workers.
Topics recently discussed include pay, job evaluation, restructures, staff standards, mileage rates, flexible working, pensions, and many more. All these issues make a difference to the day to day working lives of NHS employed pharmacists.
The PDA has already contributed to the work of this council in the last two years as an observer. Full membership means it can now make a greater contribution to the shared work of the staff side. Importantly, this new arrangement means that any matters which are specific to pharmacists can be raised directly because the PDA is focused entirely on pharmacists.
Unlocking the local benefit
Additionally, because of this formal acceptance onto the NHS Staff Council, NHS employed pharmacists can now bring further benefits of the PDA’s new status to their own workplace. PDA members at any NHS employer can volunteer to become the local PDA Union Representative. They are now able to specifically represent issues relating to their pharmacist colleagues and pharmacy related matters, a role for which they will receive paid time off from normal duties; the PDA will provide training and other support.
Pharmacists at that employer will then have a PDA Rep representing their views and interests in conversation with local management. The rep can support pharmacists with individual concerns, and PDA Reps can contribute to the success of local staff side.
Paul Day, PDA Union Director said, “We have formally secured national representation for pharmacists employed by the NHS, and we can make much more of a material difference from the centre than ever before. This also unlocks the opportunity for PDA member pharmacists in NHS workplaces up and down the country to make a local difference.
This is so important because matters of concern to pharmacists can be local issues relating exclusively to their pharmacy departments for which local solutions can be found. As all PDA members and PDA workplace representatives are pharmacists, the PDA provides a mechanism to have an informed and dedicated voice for the pharmacist profession.”
PDA members at some NHS employers have already become a recognised PDA Representative and are making a positive difference on the issues that matter to pharmacists at that employer. More PDA members can now join that network by becoming the rep at their NHS employer too.
Members at any NHS employer where there is not yet a local PDA Representative are invited to email [email protected] to find out more about the role, and pharmacists who are not yet a PDA member are encouraged to join.
NHS Unions
The fourteen unions formally recognised on the NHS Staff Side Council are:
- Association for Laboratory Medicine
- British Association of Occupational Therapists (BAOT)
- British Dietetic Association (BDA),
- British & Irish Orthoptic Society (BIOS)
- Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP)
- GMB
- PDA Union – representing only NHS employed pharmacists and foundation trainees
- Prison Officers Association (POA)
- Royal College of Midwives (RCM)
- Royal College of Nursing (RCN)
- Royal College of Podiatry (RCPod)
- Society of Radiographers (SoR)
- UNISON
- Unite the Union
Learn more
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.
Read about our key member benefits here.