If you’ve recently engaged a locum pharmacist, you understand the importance of relying on a reputable and licensed agency. Some have attempted to cut corners by resorting to social media for staffing, leaving their business vulnerable to unknown individuals.
Enter Pharmacy SOS: a licensed, dependable, and round-the-clock service tailored to meet your locum needs. With our streamlined payroll system, we handle all the nitty-gritty details, sparing you the hassle of navigating contractor versus employee status, managing superannuation, worker’s insurance, and state revenue office taxes. Leave it all to us and focus on what matters most – your business.
In simple terms, whether a locum pharmacist is considered an employee or a contractor often boils down to who has control over key factors such as their working hours, tools, breaks, and service operations.
If you, as the business, control the hours the pharmacist works (eg a shift is from 9am-5pm, or when the locum is required to open and close the shop), the tools they use (such as the software dispensing system), when they can go on breaks (eg a second pharmacist needs to be on duty) and how to operate the service they provide (eg can the locum pharmacist bring in their own laprop and dispense using their own favourite dispensing software?), then the locum pharmacist is classified as an employee.
Instances where this might differ are rare.
Recently, the LHLO published a newsletter and we thought we would share with you the following qoutes:
It is crucial for providers and hosts to understand their obligations, as penalties for using or providing unlicensed labour hire services can exceed:
- $600,000 for a corporation
- $150,000 for an individual.
Always use the tools on the LHA website to ensure providers have a valid licence:
- Check a provider is licensed using LHA’s Register of Licensed Providers.
- Stay up to date on any changes to a provider’s licence status using Follow my Providers.
- Report any suspected non-compliant or unlawful activity, such as if a provider’s bank details regularly change on invoices, using the Report a problem tool.
Stay tuned for more Pharmacy SOS blog posts soon.
(Last Updated on May 2, 2024)