In September 2000, pay negotiations involving the four trade unions with members in the pharmacies sector and the state employers' body, the National Cooperation of Swedish Pharmacies (Apoteket AB), were stopped by the trade unions, and the two largest unions issued notice of industrial action.
In October and November 2000, Swedish pharmacies were hit by industrial action taken by professional pharmacists seeking an enhanced pay increase in negotiations over a new collective agreement. The dispute was resolved in mid-November through a deal providing for a rise of 3.38% over 10 months. Similar agreements were also reached with three other trade unions representing pharmacy employees.
In September 2000, pay negotiations involving the four trade unions with members in the pharmacies sector and the state employers' body, the National Cooperation of Swedish Pharmacies (Apoteket AB), were stopped by the trade unions, and the two largest unions issued notice of industrial action.
The Swedish Pharmaceutical Association (Sveriges Farmaceutförbund, SFF) - representing 4,500 university graduate pharmacists and affiliated to the Swedish Confederation of Professional Associations (Svenska Akademikers Centralorganisation, SACO) - announced that all 900 Swedish pharmacies would be affected by action taken by all its members. The white-collar Pharmacists' Union (Farmaciförbundet) - with about 6,000 members (dispensers, pharmacy technicians and assistants) and affiliated to the Swedish Confederation of Professional Employees (Tjänstemännens Centralorganisation, TCO) - also gave notice of industrial action. The pay negotiations had been slow and the employers had offered a pay increase of only 3.2%, while the Pharmacists' Union sought 5.5% and SFF 4%.
However, on 13 October 2000, the day before the conflict was to start, the Pharmacists' Union accepted the employers' final offer of a pay rise of 3.38%, reached through mediation. The pharmacists organised in SFF would not, however, accept the offer as their last demand had been for a rise of 4%. A conflict involving only SFF thus started on 14 October.
SFF's action involved a ban on overtime work and on extra work at other pharmacies - there is a currently a shortage of about 300 pharmacists, and pharmacists therefore often have to be seconded to pharmacies other than their normal workplaces. The industrial action initially meant that many pharmacies, especially in rural areas, had to close on Saturdays and Sundays and cut their opening hours during the rest of the week. After several weeks, SFF decided to give notice of further action. It was planned that 430 strategically placed members should take strike action from 14 November - such as all pharmacists working in the head office of Apoteket AB, certain key pharmacists all over the country, and data coordinators and dispensers in the regions of Stockholm, Göteborg and Skåne. Their work tasks would not be covered by other union members.
On 13 November, the day before the strike was due to start, a new collective agreement was signed by SFF and Apoteket AB. The union estimates that the deal is worth the equivalent of at least a 3.9% pay rise. The agreement was achieved partly by shortening its duration by two months - it thus runs from 1 July 2000 (backdated) to 30 April 2001. The pay increase for the 10-month period, at 3.38%, is the same as that previously offered by the employers for a 12-month deal. However, there will also be a pay supplement for inconvenient working hours on Saturdays. The two parties also agreed that extra training should be offered to those pharmacists who will work with new systems.
Alongside the agreements with SFF and the Pharmacists' Union, accords were also reached with the other two unions involved. At the beginning of November, collective agreements were concluded with Apoteket AB for around 100 members of the Salaried Employees' Union (Tjänstemannaförbundet, HTF) and for 600 cleaners represented by the small independent Apoteksanställdas förbund. Both deals provided for pay increases of 3.38%, as agreed by the two larger unions.
The four bargaining units in the pharmacy sector had concluded three-year agreements in 1998. The agreements were renegotiated in 2000 because they contained clauses allowing the parties to cancel them one year early, and the unions made use of this option because they viewed the previously agreed pay increases of 2.4% for 2000-1 as being inadequate. All four collective agreements in the pharmacy sector will now expire on 30 April 2001 and negotiations over new agreements will start in early 2001, at the same time as most other sectors with three-year agreements (SE0010170N).
Eurofound recommends citing this publication in the following way.
Eurofound (2000), Pay deal ends pharmacists conflict, article.
