Registered Pharmacist
Supermarket Hours Just received a list of locums for Saturday, that incluses a 12 hour shift at a big supermarket with no breaks???? is this legal never mind safe? The employer? you guessed it... Tescos, obviously the Lee case hasn't led them to reconsider their safety/profit ratio!
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Any thoughts?
Graham
Registered Pharmacist
My thought would be not to work said shift!
Newly registered in 1981
Refuse the booking and state why.Originally Posted by gstretch
Where am I?; In the Pharmacy.
Who are you?; The new Number 2.
Who is number 1?; You are number 6.
What do you want?;..................
An beagle le dearcadh
I am not condoning shifts like this, but I have often done 12 or 13 hours 'straight' without a break in the past. The carrot was always remuneration. Maximum was €800 (£710) plus VAT for a 13 hour Sunday. I found it handy to take the hit, and take two days off immediately after.
What are the agency offering you?
Fleeg.
Forum Creator
Graham - did you go to Liverpool? When did you qualify? It's not a very common name that's all.
Admin
Please never reveal personal details on the forum.
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Newly registered in 1981
12 on then two days off is reasonable. Even I would consider 2x12 hours in a 7 day week.
As part of the working week it is not.
Where am I?; In the Pharmacy.
Who are you?; The new Number 2.
Who is number 1?; You are number 6.
What do you want?;..................
Registered Pharmacist
I am not considering taking the booking...
My feeling is those that do these shifts tend to be recently qualified; aka relatively inexperienced; aka rather short of funds and therefore less likely to complain about conditions. I used to do a 9am-10.30pm when I was a post-grad student, but only worked that on a Sunday and Thursday evening. That was 14 years ago and quite a bit has changed since then... incidently the Sunday had long periods of quiet when I used to eat takeaways and catch up on college work... it was a good gig now that I remember it.
It is possible that this store is fairly quiet also and breaks could be worked into the day. However I do remember doing 1200 items in a 10 hour day in a small multiple in one of the Manchester satellite towns (Rochdale I think). I was booked for three days and refused to go back after the first day. Has anybody ever walked out 'on the day' due to poor conditions? I think that would be a rare thing! and even rarer when one is newly qualified.
Should the new body be giving guidelines? I'll bet Tescos give the checkout staff and shelf stackers breaks... perhaps putting peas in the right place and scanning groceries is more important to Tescos than patients getting the right medicines and advise????
Graham
Newly registered in 1981
It probably goes something like this......
Pharmacists are expensive to employ and therefore every minute of their employment should be filled with doing something profitable.
I'm wondering how this stacks up under the new RP regulations, where the shift length could introduce risk to patients.
Where am I?; In the Pharmacy.
Who are you?; The new Number 2.
Who is number 1?; You are number 6.
What do you want?;..................
King Amongst Members
Personally i would just take it and get the money. I work for tescos and our locums just pump the waiting time up to an hour and go for a wonder or eat/knap behind the dispensary for 30minutes. Anyone asks for them, they are in the loo/on a break. Come back in 20minutes. I know your not ment to do this and its unprofessional but we are all human. As long as the managers arnt aware ( we would never tell) it cant hurt/ bother them.
Antony
King Amongst Members
Depends on how busy and support staff.
If it does 100 items a day then its OK as plenty of time for rest.
If it does 400 I wouldn't do it and would let the PDA know the details for their evidence log.
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