"Medical informant, not salesman": historic sentence
Pilot judgment on the role of scientific whistleblowers. "They treated me as a salesman, so I rebelled", "I hope this ruling can also be of help to those professionals who are in my same condition".
Matthew Marcellus – January 21, 2017 – THE NATION
La Spezia, 22 January 2017 – «Suddenly my job had changed. It was no longer just that of inform doctors on the properties of the drugs, their administration and any contraindications, but also to collect orders. And as soon as sales dropped, the pressure kicked in. I lived with a difficult situation for months, I even got sick. Today, finally, a judge has done justice, and I hope that this sentence will also be of help to those professionals who are in my same condition".
Tiziano Manzalini, a 64-year-old scientific medical informant – twenty-nine of whom spent informing family doctors and hospitals throughout the province and neighboring ones – still reluctantly recalls that last year of work employed by a well-known pharmaceutical company. Which, convicted for bullying, now he will have to compensate him with around one hundred thousand euros, as a result of the unprecedented sentence issued by the labor judge Giampiero Panico, destined to become the cornerstone of a profession, that of scientific informant, too often mistaken for a 'barker' of medicines.
The judge, who recognized the unlawfulness of the pharmaceutical company's behavior and the impact of this action on the person and image of the scientific medical representative, went further than the sentence, setting pen to paper what the national collective agreements of work explicit without however being respected: that is, recognizing the right of the scientific medical rep to carry out the work performance on the basis of his/her classification and professional profile, and not on the basis of market trends and sales of this or that drug . It all started in the summer of 2012, with the arrival of a new area manager who began to harass Manzalini in the workplace: a real support, even during talks with doctors in the area.
And then, continuous pressure on drug sales data, complete with a request to collect orders. A situation that had given rise to a real physical breakdown in the medical informant, culminating in the final interview with the top management of the company, where he was placed at the crossroads: recall courses or severance pay. “I resisted for a while, then I got sick. I had stopped doing my job, I was forced to do another. And as sales figures fell, pressures mounted. Luckily this sentence did justice» explains the informant. The man, who has always worked in the pharmaceutical information sector for the past two years, is now awaiting retirement. «I am proud of the fact that this sentence has finally recognized our work – explains Manzalini – the scientific rep must be detached from the logic of the market, and must be evaluated only for his professional preparation. I thank the colleagues who have offered me help and solidarity, and those who have been close to me in these four years: I hope that this pronouncement can help this work and those who practice it".
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Ed.: It is strange and surprising that the press define a sentence that does nothing but apply the law as historic. Evidently it means that until now the law has not been observed and that no one has enforced it or has checked that it was observed, not even the ISF. But of the latter it is understandable, they would have risked being fired! We must be grateful to Colleague Tiziano who had the courage and strength to rebel. He revealed that the "king is naked"!
Now Aifa has to show that it takes the necessary measures and applies the legal sanctions provided for by Legislative Decree 219/06. Or do you want to omit an official act? The same goes for Farmindustria with its much vaunted and hitherto useless Code of Conduct. This is a chance to prove it's good for something, otherwise it'll prove it's just smoke and mirrors!
