Join PPA’s campaign to increase graduate pharmacists’ pay
Pharmacists are Australia’s lowest paid graduates.
Professional Pharmacists Australia has been campaigning for improvements to the pay and conditions of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians for many years, and in 2019, the union put forward an application to have pharmacy pay rates increased. PPA’s application was opposed by the Pharmacy Guild of Australia and other employer groups and ultimately resulted in a five per cent increase to the award rate.
This was an important win for pharmacists, but the increase was not passed on graduates.
As a result of PPA's campaigning however, the Fair Work Commission did identify an issue with the consistency in graduate pay rates in Australia and committed to reviewing the rates in the future.
The FWC is now undertaking that review, in which the union will be advocating for an increase to the graduate pharmacist pay rate. We believe an increase is long overdue and the pay and conditions of graduate pharmacists and pharmacy technicians have fallen well behind where they should be in comparison to other health professionals.
An increase will not only improve the lives of workers across the country, it will also help in attracting high school students to study pharmacy, attracting graduate pharmacists to pharmacy as a profession and retaining existing young pharmacists in the industry.
Follow this page for regular updates on the Pharmacy Award Review and PPA's commentry on the case.