LloydsPharmacy redundancy packages could spark legal challenge

LloydsPharmacy announced it will be closing its Sainsbury’s based branches later this year, with the redundancy of around 100 pharmacists sparking a legal challenge from the PDA.

Sainsbury’s said that they are exploring options for each individual branch, and that a review of the effected branches confirmed that “almost all customers will be able to access pharmacy services from nearby local alternatives from within a mile or less.”

LloydsPharmacy is the only Newhaven pharmacy to open late into the evening, and its closure has raised concern among residents that services from other pharmacies in the town will be overwhelmed.

According to a statement, PDA members who worked in Sainsbury's pharmacies when they were bought by LloydsPharmacy in 2015 have approached the organisation after the multiple told staff being made redundant that they are only entitled to statutory redundancy payments unless enhanced terms were “specifically written into your contract of employment.”

But according to the PDA, when Sainsbury’s sold 281 pharmacies to then LloydsPharmacy parent Celesio to 2015, all 2,500 staff transferred to the multiple via TUPE legislation were entitled to an enhanced redundancy package, transferred to their new employment at LloydsPharmacy.

Their enhanced redundancy terms offer seven weeks’ pay for each full year worked, compared to statutory redundancy which pays out a week for every year worked over the age of 22 and a week and a half for every year worked over the age of 41.

The PDA added: “Many former Sainsbury’s employees continued to work at the same location, loyally contributing to the LloydsPharmacy business with a belief that should redundancy ever happen to them, they would at least receive the enhanced redundancy benefits that transferred across for everyone.”

A LloydsPharmacy spokesperson said: “LloydsPharmacy is in consultation with all Sainsbury’s-based colleagues who are potentially at risk of redundancy. Meaningful consultation will include considering the terms of the redundancy package that will be offered to them, if redundancy becomes the only possible outcome.“LloydsPharmacy is working hard to ensure that colleagues impacted by its withdrawal from Sainsbury’s branches are treated fairly and consistently, across all potentially affected branches.”

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