Pharmacists urged: Check your pay

Wednesday, 11 July 2012      

Section: Latest News

Australian pharmacists have been urged to check their pay this Monday to ensure they are getting the right amount as part of National Check Your Pay Day.

Jacki Baulch, Senior Industrial Officer of APESMA, said APESMA was regularly contacted by many pharmacists who had not been receiving their legal rates of pay from their pharmacy owner.

“The Fair Work Ombudsman recently found that a staggering 44.3 per cent of Queensland pharmacies had breached Australia’s employment laws including simply underpaying their staff,” Ms Baulch said.

“This should ring alarm bells in every Australian pharmacist to check their pay slips and makes sure they are getting paid what they deserve.

“Apart from being good practice to check your pay regularly, many things change on 1 July that could affect your pay packet.

“The Pharmacy Industry Award requires many pharmacists to be paid more from 1 July this year and of course there are new income tax rates this year.”

Ms Baulch said APESMA would continue to campaign for a full national audit of pharmacies across the country given the shocking results of the Ombudsman’s Queensland audit.

“We know there are breaches of employment law across the country because our pharmacy members regularly report underpayments,” Ms Baulch said.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s deliberate or not, pharmacy owners need to understand that they cannot break the law regardless of whether it’s the Health Act or the Fair Work Act.

“APESMA called on the Pharmacy Guild to join our call for a national audit but they remain opposed to any efforts to expose the culture of underpaying professional pharmacists.

“In fact when this issue was raised last year they falsely denied it was going on in the first place.”

Ms Baulch said any pharmacists worried that they were not being paid fairly should contact APESMA as the Pharmacy Guild was only authorised to help pharmacy owners, not individual pharmacists.