The PDA has identified more than forty different companies that have simultaneously operated pharmacies under the Jhoots brand. It is important that individuals are clear which company it is that owes them money, exactly how much is owed and for what periods of work they are owed. Individuals should also do their best to gather any written confirmation of the agreement under which that work was undertaken, such as a locum booking or employment contract.
Once this information is collated, individual PDA members should contact the PDA to discuss their situation with the defence team for advice on their specific circumstances. The PDA will help individuals understand the options available to them and how they can exercise those options if they wish.
Providing such information to the PDA also enables the organisation to evidence the collective dispute being experienced by pharmacists and to raise concerns with the government, the NHS, etc, in order to seek solutions for all those impacted.
While the PDA defence team will advise individuals, the following sets out the main types of issue:
Unpaid wages
As the first step towards an employment tribunal claim, employed pharmacists owed wages will need to contact the government’s Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS). PDA legal advisors can assist with this if informed in time (there is a deadline of 3 months less one day from the date the wages should have been paid, by which to lodge the case with ACAS).
ACAS can bring employees and the employers that owe them money together on a voluntary basis to resolve the dispute informally as an alternative to proceeding to the tribunal process.
ACAS can be contacted here.
Locum fees
Outstanding locum fees for self-employed pharmacists are not an employment matter and so are beyond the scope of ACAS’ involvement. Instead, this is a contractual debt where a client is refusing to pay locum for their work, here taking legal action is the remedy.
Claims go through county court, and this may be via the small claims process for claims of lower value (e.g under £10,000) and/or low complexity.
Insolvency
The situation is made more complex for many pharmacists because a number of companies that operated under the Jhoots brand have been put into administration (i.e. considered insolvent). In this situation, claims of unpaid fees or wages will be considered in accordance with insolvency law alongside claims from others that are also owed money by that same company.
To claim the money owed, individuals will need to provide details to the administrators. To date, all companies that operated Jhoots pharmacies and that are now in administration are using the same administrators, Turpin Barker Armstrong, who can be contacted at:
Allen House
1 Westmead Road
Sutton
Surrey
SM1 4LA
Telephone : 020 8661 7878
Turpin Barker Armstrong have supplied a specific e-mail address for those affected by Jhoots to use and can be found here: [email protected]
The specific Administrators are Martin Armstrong or Andrew Bailey.
More information on the process can be found on the government’s website here.
The PDA recommends that locums lodging the debts owed to them do so in writing, with details of the days worked and the amount of money outstanding. The administrators will then be able to consider those claims as a creditor accordingly. Whether payment is received will entirely depend on the assets available to the administrators, the amounts owed to the secured* creditors and the amounts owed to the other unsecured creditors.
*A secured creditor is one which has the benefit of a security interest over some or all the assets of a debtor and therefore get priority for repayment. An example of a secured creditor is a bank that has loaned a mortgage against a property. Locum fees will be unsecured.
The Administrators will advise those who register debts accordingly, so individuals are advised contact them and complete any forms they send over with the details of what is owed, without further delay.
The PDA has been raising the issues caused by Jhoots at the highest level of government and on the evening of Tuesday 9 December is holding a further webinar on the issue for PDA locum members.
Learn more
- ACAS
- Creditor Support
- Claim money back from a bankrupt person or company in compulsory liquidation: detailed guidance for creditors
- Government commits to tackle bad business behaviours
- Watch the parliamentary debate about Jhoots here
Not yet a PDA member?
If you have not yet joined the PDA, we encourage you to join today and ask your colleagues to do the same.
Membership is FREE to pharmacy students, trainee pharmacists and for the first three months of being newly qualified.