Pharmacists ‘held hostage’ in dispute

Press, 12 July 1985, Page 5

Pharmacists ‘held hostage’ in dispute

By

CINDY BAXTER,

Health Reporter

Pharmacists claim they are being “held hostage” and will be at the point of insolvency because of a dispute between some Health Department workers and the State Services Commission.

An overtime ban by pharmaceutical pricers in the Health Department in Christchurch began in May and last month led to pharmacies having to resort to bank loans to pay wholesalers for prescription drugs. Chemist shops rely on the pricers to ensure the Government pays them for prescriptions handed out to the public.

The 52 pricers in the Christchurch department are responsible for processing the payments for all South Island pharmacists and those in part of Hawke’s Bay. Although last week the pricers had resumed overtime, proposals put to them last Friday by the State Services Commission and the Health Department were rejected and the overtime ban began again on Monday.

The executive director of the Chemists’ Guild, Mr Bruce Jenkin, said yesterday that the dispute was “an extremely serious matter,’’ and meant that the pharmacists affected were $1 million out of pocket each week because of it. “Pharmacies cannot

dispense prescriptions without regular payment,” he said.

“If the P.S.A. thinks that pharmacies can provide millions of dollars worth of prescriptions a week it can go back to school.”

He said that if the dispute went on for any more than two to three days, the guild would have to go to the Government and “point out the stark reality” of the situation.

The reality was that the public might have to start paying the full price of prescriptions to enable chemists to pay the wholesalers who, in turn, had to pay the drug manufacturers. “To put it in its crudest form the pharmacies are being held as hostage,” Mr Jenkin said.

The Canterbury regional secretary of the P.S.A., Mr John McKenzie, said last evening that no further talks were arranged at this stage.

He said the State Services Commission proposals, put to the pricers last Friday, were the most sterile proposals he had ever seen. “Those pricers are in the lowest-graded positions of any sector of the Public Service, and some of them have been there for 17 years,” he said.

Mr McKenzie said that the pricers in the Auckland office had given notice of similar industrial action and it was likely to spread throughout New Zealand. The pricers were asking for some type of promotion

opportunity and grading in their jobs. The commission’s offer had been three senior grading positions for the office, but in doing that it wanted to take away the pharmacist in charge,-he said. “They wanted the department to function without the pharmacist to decipher the prescriptions. They were also asking a senior clerk, only one grade higher than the others, to be in charge of about 15 people. In other areas of the building, a clerk with that sort of seniority would be in charge of three people at the most.”

Mr McKenzie agreed that the dispute was deadlocked at the moment, as the commission would not enter into further talks until the overtime ban was stopped, and the pricers would not do overtime until the talks began.

“Maybe when the chemists end up in the bankruptcy court they might do something. It is quite absurd for the commission to stick its head in the sand and believe that all the problems will go away.”

Mr McKenzie said that understaffing was also a problem in the department.

“If it wasn’t, an overtime ban would not affect everybody like it has,” he said. The regional assistant commissioner, Mr E. J. Martin, was not available for comment last evening.

The director of the Clinical Services Division of the Health Department, Dr John

Phillips, who also took part in the negotiations, said yesterday that they had been trying very hard to find out what the pricers were not happy with. “We made various changes to put them in line with their requests, but all we know is that they rejected them and started industrial action again.” Dr Phillips said he had been trying all day to reach Mr McKenzie to discuss the situation.

“We are doing our level best,” he said. The president of the Chemists’ Guild Canterbury and Westland branch, Mr John Taverner, said yesterday that the Minister of Health, Dr Bassett, had visited the pricers about three weeks ago when the chemists were desperate. The pricers had agreed to begin overtime again, but not before the chemists had had to resort to bank loans to tide them over before the next lot of payments came through. “Luckily the Bankers’ Association came to our rescue, but that does not solve the situation,” he said.

There were about 360 chemists affected by the dispute.

The chemists sent their prescriptions to the department fortnightly for processing for payment, said Mr Taverner.

On average, there were about 1000 prescriptions a batch, worth about $9 each. “That is a lot of money, and it cannot go on for too long,” he said.