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Representatives from the Pharmacists’ Defence Association (PDA) Union and senior Boots managers have begun talks to establish how they will respond to the vote by the company’s pharmacists to derecognise the Boots Pharmacists’ Association (BPA).
In total, 2,826 pharmacists voted for derecognition (86.63% of voters) of the BPA, while 436 (13.37% of voters) cast their ballot for an agreement that continues the BPA’s representation of Boots’s pharmacists.
The vote just achieved the threshold of 40% of Boots’s pharmacists that is legally required for the agreement to end.
The Central Arbitration Committee (CAC), which resolves collective disputes, ruled that the agreement between Boots and the BPA should be terminated with “immediate effect” on 11 June 2018. The PDA Union then immediately submitted a formal request for recognition for the same group of employees that were entitled to vote in the ballot.
Following this, Boots was given 10 working days to respond to the PDA Union’s request with one of four responses: to agree to voluntarily recognise the union; to decline the request or not respond, in which case the PDA Union can apply to the CAC for recognition to be granted; or to ask for a further period of 20 days in which to discuss what could be agreed.
Boots responded with a request for a further 20 days for discussion. If no agreement is made after this period, the PDA Union can then go on to apply to the CAC for recognition.
