Locum pharmacists have launched legal action against businesses operated by Sarbjit Jhooty and Nilam Patel over unpaid fees, C+D can exclusively reveal.
The PDA last week (October 23) said that a group of locums “caught in [the] Jhoots crisis” are owed “an eye-watering total exceeding £925,000” in unpaid fees after working at pharmacies run by Jhooty and Patel.
Read more: Kinnock: Jhoots services are falling ‘well below the mark’
And it revealed to C+D that it is assisting unpaid locums with “some claims” against the businesses that “have been submitted to the relevant court”.
The organisation told C+D that as of this year, it has helped its locum members recover “almost £1m” in unpaid fees from pharmacies since 2004 - which “shows how exceptional the current Jhoots debt is”, it said.
The allegations relate to some of the branches under the Jhoots Pharmacy brand, which is made up of various independent businesses.
“There may be more”
The PDA said that it is “advising” affected locums to “exercise their rights to recover the amounts outstanding to them directly” - and believes “there may be more [locums] that have not yet contacted the PDA”.
It is also pushing for the locums to be “considered in the government response” to accusations of financial mismanagement by Jhoots pharmacies owned and operated by Sarbjit Jhooty, it added.
The organisation said that it has written to MPs and urged “the relevant government departments” to “do everything possible” to ensure that unpaid locums “receive the funds owed to them”.
Read more: Jhoots pharmacies ‘named and shamed’ for minimum wage breach
It added that it is “supporting several employed pharmacists who have also not received their salaries”.
These pharmacists are now “engaging with the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) to try and resolve that issue” before taking their case to the employment tribunal if it remains “unresolved”, it said.
Sarbjit Jhooty and Nilam Patel did not respond to C+D’s requests for comment.
Jhoots: “Independent businesses”
There are various businesses operating under the Jhoots Pharmacy brand name.
A representative for two of these previously told C+D that the numerous allegations of financial mismanagement at Jhoots pharmacies only relate to those under the ownership and operation of Sarbjit Jhooty, such as Jhoots Pharmacy Limited.
They said the allegations do not relate to Manjit Jhooty, who owns and operates 21 of the 151 pharmacies trading under the Jhoots Pharmacy brand name through his companies Jhoots Healthcare Limited and Pasab Limited.
Read more: ‘Just one pharmacy business’ owes locums £200k unpaid fees
Manjit and several other directors resigned from Jhoots Pharmacy Limited in August 2019, while Sarbjit is not a director of Jhoots Healthcare Limited and Pasab Limited, they added.
“There is no legal, financial or governance connection between my companies and those operated by Sarbjit Jhooty - we are independent businesses and share only the Jhoots Pharmacy brand name,” Manjit Jhooty said at the time.
Read more: Jhoots: Patients redirected as script numbers plummet
It comes after pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock this month told MPs that “the services provided by Jhoots are falling well below the mark”.
Speaking during a House of Commons discussion about the pharmacy chain, Kinnock said that it is “completely and utterly unacceptable if a business such as Jhoots is not paying its staff”.
Read more: Jhooty and the GPs: Employee pins miscarriage on pay stress as staff owed thousands
Meanwhile, Jhoots Healthcare Limited was this month one of two pharmacy businesses “named and shamed” by the government after they failed to pay staff the national minimum wage.
It follows extensive C+D reporting on the pharmacy chain, including that staff had been unable to “pay for groceries” and had to “hitch rides” to work after it failed to pay their wages, while others said they were owed thousands and resorting to food banks.
