Pharmacy Daily | APESMA gunning for audit

PHARMACIST Union APESMA is urging pharmacists across the nation to join its petition which calls on the Fair Work Ombudsman to launch an Australia-wide audit of pharmacies, to stop what it is calling a “culture of underpayments”. The petition comes just days after the union announced it had written to the Ombudsman to ask for an audit of pharmacies (PD Mon). The calls have not been met with wholesale approval however, with the Pharmacy Guild of Australia saying it was “disappointed” that APESMA “has chosen to denigrate community pharmacy” and that it remained confident that the vast majority of pharmacists are paid appropriately and in many cases are paid above the award rate (PD yest). “Given that the Guild isn’t going to support an audit we need as many pharmacists as possible to show their support,” CEO of APESMA Chris Walton said in response to the Guild’s refusal to join the calls for an audit. “We know there is a culture of underpayments in many pharmacies across Australia because so many pharmacists contact APESMA to report it,” Walton added. APESMA has said that pharmacists who wish to show their support for an audit can do so anonymously via its online petition, with the union vowing to take the results directly to the Fair Work Ombudsman. The audit petition can be viewed at http://apesma.com.au/groups/ pharmacists/.

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