Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

The company involved in these practices of gross exploitation of its workers is not some small pharmacy. It is part of the biggest pharmaceutical company in the world, McKesson Corporation, which has an annual revenue of €169 billion, more than double the revenue of the Irish State. Workers themselves organising is the way that proper terms and conditions can be won. That is why I salute those workers and Mandate for taking the initiative of organising. That is seen in the response of the company, which has spent €10,000 on setting up a bogus, so-called colleagues representative committee in flagrant contravention of ILO conventions.

Another heinous transgression by Lloyds since the dispute began has been the targeting and intimidation of pharmacists with the claim that they do not have the right to strike, which every worker obviously has the right to because of the company's community pharmacy contract with the HSE. We will get it in black and white from the Department of Health before the week is out to reassure totally the pharmacists at Lloyds, who want to stand with their colleagues on the pickets. I want to state that pharmacists who participate in the ballot and-or subsequently join Mandate have the constitutional right to strike and the threats of disciplinary action by the company are without foundation. I hope the Minister will echo that point to provide clarity for those workers.

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