Employee pay reviews a rarity

Simone Roberts

While there has been a slight increase over the last 12 months in the number of employee community pharmacists with written contracts of employment, many pharmacists have not negotiated a regular salary review with their employer.

Results from the 12th annual remuneration survey from the Pharmacist Division of the Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists & Managers Australia -- the body representing employee pharmacists -- revealed that 62 per cent of employee community pharmacists had a salary review only when they approached their employer. Forty-nine per cent of employee community pharmacists received their most recent increase in 2006 while 20 per cent received a pay rise in 2005.

Ted Smith, executive officer of the Pharmacist Division of APESMA, urged employee pharmacists to ensure they included provisions that require annual salary reviews in conjunction with performance reviews in their contract.

"There is an absence of performance reviews being provided to employees by their employers. Community pharmacy is falling behind other industries and pharmacy sectors, even though the Quality Care Pharmacy Program provides advice and documentation for pharmacies about performance reviews for staff to include as part of their management systems," he said.

Mr Smith also reminded pharmacists to nail down a job description, after discovering that 64 per cent of employee community pharmacists do not have a job description, compared with only 15 per cent of hospital pharmacists.

Mr Smith said he hoped APESMA's new employee contract builder, Employee Pharmacist Individual Contracts (EPIC), would be used as part of contractual negotiations between employees and employers. The online tool is to be launched soon.

"The use of EPIC by employee pharmacists will eliminate these shortcomings in the current system and diminish the potential for disputes that occur when details of the working relationship between an employee and employer are not documented," he said.

This year's report was also underscored by a tightening of the salary increases paid to pharmacists. Nationally pharmacists' salaries rose by 3.1 per cent. This compares unfavourably with increases for other professions surveyed by APESMA, where an increase in the vicinity of five per cent is considered unremarkable.