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The Norwich Employment Tribunal has ordered a distance-selling pharmacy (DSP) that entered administration in August 2025 to pay out a protective award to 20 former employees.

Employment judge Martin Warren’s September 14 ruling, which was published on Monday (October 12), states that Universal Pharmacy Limited – which mainly supplied medicines to care homes from its Swaffham facility – must remunerate the individuals for the period of 63 days from July 7, 2025, when all but two of them were made redundant.

The remaining two were made redundant 16 days later.

The judge upheld the employees’ complaint under section 188 of the 1992 trade unions and labour relations act, which concerns the duty of employers to hold a consultation period when making 20 or more staff members redundant.

Neither the sums awarded to the 20 employees nor the full reasons cited by the judge in making his decision have been made public.

A September 2025 report from the administrators stated: “Preferential claims of employees for arrears of wages, salary and holiday pay are estimated at £35,664.”

However, in an August 2026 report following the automatic end of Universal Pharmacy’s administration period, the administrators said a successful claim at the employment tribunal “could potentially be valued up to £96,000”.

It is unclear how the required funds will be allocated to the 20 employees. The August 2026 report from the administrators stated that while they hoped to recoup as much as £780,000 in VAT refunds to pay Universal Pharmacy’s creditors, secured creditor Castlebridge Finance did not grant a request to extend the administration period after August 3 to facilitate the recovery of these monies.

In November 2025, Universal Pharmacy was bought by MedPal AI.

Universal Pharmacy's director has been approached for comment.