Proposed lawsuit filed against Shoppers claims company is ‘abusive’ to pharmacists
Global News
A proposed class action lawsuit filed against Shoppers Drug Mart and its parent company Loblaw claims that the companies pressure pharmacists fill prescription quotas.
A proposed class action lawsuit filed against Shoppers Drug Mart and its parent company Loblaw claims that the companies pressure pharmacists to fill prescription quotas and that their policies can put patients in danger.
The lawsuit was filed April 11 at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice by Toronto-based law firm Ricketts Harris LLP.
The lawsuit has not yet been certified.
It claims that in or around the time Loblaw acquired Shoppers, the drugstore had imposed quotas on a number of services.
The services named in the lawsuit include medication reviews — an Ontario-funded service called MedsCheck — as well as vaccinations, and minor ailments diagnosis and prescribing.
If pharmacists fell below the targets, which the lawsuit calls “arbitrary” then allegedly there was “public naming and shaming.”
The lawsuit alleges that Shoppers Drug Mart arbitrarily terminates agreements with franchisee pharmacists and the terminations are “often abusive and humiliating.”
“Associate-Owners are often berated and insulted by (Shoppers) management, humiliated in front of their staff and colleagues, and ‘perp-walked’ out of their Shoppers Pharmacies,” the lawsuit stated.
