Legal action over intern pay
July 15, 2011
THE Association of Professional
Engineers, Scientists and Managers,
Australia (APESMA) has hinted that
it will be taking cases of underpaid
interns to court, following this
week’s furore over the hourly pay
rates of intern pharmacists (PD 14
July).
Yesterday APESMA told PD that it
has discovered “many cases” of under
award payments, that it will be
taking to court “when the time is
right”.
According to APESMA, based on a
study by Graduate Careers
Australia, more than half of all
Australian pharmacy interns are
currently being paid under award
wages.
The Pharmacy Guild responded to
APESMA’s claims saying that they
lacked basis because interns do not
work unsupervised and comparison
wages should be compared to full
registration rates, and adding that
APESMA did not fully understand
the transitional arrangements for
the pharmacy industry award.
Responding to the Guild’s
comments in yesterday’s PD
APESMA’s Jacki Baulch said
“Instead of warning pharmacy
owners not to underpay their staff
the Pharmacy Guild has decided to
stick their heads in the sand and
pretend its not going on”.
“The reason APESMA has more
pharmacy members than ever
before is because pharmacists are
sick of being paid illegally low rates
of pay.
“We encourage pharmacists
being underpaid to speak out about
any under award payments they
have been receiving,” she added.
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