An employment tribunal has ruled that a pharmacist “with a history of anxiety and depression and a later diagnosis of autism was discriminated against by their NHS Trust employer”, the Pharmacists’ Defence Association (PDA) last week (July 4) announced.
The pharmacist, who was represented by the union, was awarded a “five-figure payment” as well as “four figures of interest as the overall legal process had taken so long”, it said.
However, both the nature of the grievance and the amount awarded to the pharmacist remain unclear.
Read more: Pharmacy worker awarded £10k payout over ‘unfair dismissal’
The PDA stressed that “many workplace disputes are resolved at the internal grievance/disciplinary stage when members have PDA representation”, while some “can even be resolved before that formal stage”.
“However, in this case the employer did not resolve the matter at that stage and so the PDA’s legal team then supported the member through the tribunal,” it said.
The union added that its legal team “collated a 1,600-page bundle of supportive evidence” to outline the pharmacist’s case “in the necessary detail”.
Read more: Pharmacist bags four-figure payout over ‘denied’ NHS redundancy pay
Last month, an employment tribunal awarded a pharmacy worker almost £10,000 after ruling that she was “unfairly dismissed” by her employer.
And the PDA last month warned NHS employers that “restructuring efforts…must be executed fairly” after another member’s employment tribunal win.
The tribunal ruled that an NHS employer “unfairly denied” a senior specialist pharmacist a redundancy payment and awarded the pharmacist “a four-figure sum”, it added.
