Boots employees face ‘some risk’ in refusing premium pay cuts

I think that the PDA are being alarmist and catastrophying the Boots' Sunday double pay dispute issues. Clearly, the time and a half on a Sunday is very reasonable in today's climate while pharmacist colleagues in the NHS have had two year ongoing pay freezes while Boots has given a 3% pay rise similar to last year and bonuses up to 4% are being paid out in June.

If the pharmacists package is seen in the round it ain't too bad at all.

' it ain't too bad at all.' Gerry. You are amazing. I picture you as living in a tent on a daily diet of baked beans.
How much more can pharmacists and assistants take from these bullies who can only achieve success by exploitation and bullying.

Gerry,

The crux of this is that employees who have legitimate contracts with Boots (and in this case are usually long service, loyal employees) are being intimidated into accepting a new contract which basically amounts to a large pay cut.

As has been mentioned before, with the oncoming oversupply of pharmacy graduates, this is most probably just an opening shot of a concerted attack on employees pay and conditions that will take place over the next few years by the multiples.


By the way…….have you still not got the job as director of the Public Relations department of Boots yet? ;-)

Welcome Back Gerry. I have missed your comments. Just wondered if you have wrote that letter to your manager yet , confirming your commitment to Boots vision and are willing to put your money where yur mouth is and take a 25% cut in your pay to support this.

Fingers Crossed that you are not just hot air.......

Time and a half is very reasonable?

Well Gerry, 89% of the voters would disagree.

At least there's one person who still thinks it's a great idea working for Boots. I left after i couldn't stand the bullying and pressure anymore. The working environment was a health hazard that was swept under the carpet. The workload was tremendously high and at least one member of staff went sick from the stress every month. The bullying and harassment from mangers/area managers/head office staff became ridiculous. And because unrealistic targets couldn't possibly be met, no bonuses were given. You can quote the company line as much as you want but the reality is Boots only have one priority and that's money. Nothing else matters anymore.

"Who cares? Boots cares", surely that's true, please don't tell me that Father Christmas is fictional as well!

Hi C&D,

This story seems to have very suddenly disappeared from the Home/Latest Headlines page of the website instead of slowly working its way down the listings.

Is there a reason?

Clive

i think Gerry isn't quite with it, maybe a bully himself, not realising what is being done to the Boots pharmacists. talk about a pay rise and a bonus, are these not cancelled by the pay-cuts? so there may be the possibility that these pharmacist are left out of pocket. a case of giving with the right hand and taking it back with the left hand. and i have a sneaky feeling all this is a dirty strategy by the giant (with a small'g') to get rid of long serving/higher paid pharmacists and take advantage of the over production of pharmacists, bring them in and pay them peanuts. Gerry wake UP. Listen to the disturbed collegue, he cannot sleep, and am sure he's not alone, there may be many like him out there. working for boots, i came to realise is like signing your death warrant, when i started losing my hair and had to see a trichologist i knew it was time to walk out. you Gerry must be spokeman for boots ihave no doubt or is there more to your support for these BULLIES that you haven't told us about.

couldn't agree with you more Brian. boots don't care about their staff. Money comes first before the people who help to generate that money for them. in actual fact they come between the money and the people who make it for them, in my opinion

No Adiina, as an NHS pharmacist having had a 2 year pay freeze. Boots pay seems much higher and having worked for an independent multiple they never paid double time or time and a half for Sundays.

I think that you and others may have lost sight of how your colleagues are remunerated in other comapnies and other sectors. I just think that we need to work with Boots and it does not all have to be confrontation or personal anecdotal baggage.

Best wishes

Gerry

Hi Mark

Nice to hear from you and I am very sorry that you are having problems. I hope you find away through it.

Gerry

A tear came to my eye when you mentioned your 2 year pay freeze...... then I remembered your very generous final salary pension scheme.
This behaviour by Boots is poor, infact unethical as far as I'm concerned, they should honour the contracts. I have worked for both the NHS and retail side of pharmacy and I know who has it easier, like to take a guess..........................................?

You must be mistaken my dear chap that is no longer a given particularly for those of us that have only come back into the NHS in the past four years. Please get your facts right....thanks!

Mark...you are terribly naive/ I personally think that many Boots pharmacists have been poorly advised by the PDA in my view. Remember, PDA members may well be used like pawns by the union in order to get the publicity they need to create the qdos and ramp up their membership too.

So all parties have something to gain. My strategy would have been....'jaw jaw' and not 'war war'. So, the PDA may get good publicity by creating a grat deal of uncertainty among its members and exacerbating it by alleging that jobs are on the line and further stresses of dismissal.

I believe that the PDA may be irsponsible as once the situation dies down, which it will, PDA will move on and end of story...lawyers will have collected their fees. Thank you very much.

The real winners the PDA lawyers!