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Nursery
Nurse Dispute
See
also UNISON Scotland Events Page
Nursery Nurse Meeting:
Friday 28 May, 11.00am Augustine Church,
George IV Bridge Edinburgh.
- ballot result to be announced
- depending on result, arrangements for return
to work or for continued action
Friday 21 May:
08.30 St Crispins School
10.00am Waterloo Place outside Wellington
Court, in your mourning clothes.
Wednesday 19 May: 9am Edinburgh City Chambers
Thursday 20 May: 11.30 Scottish Parliament
First Minister's Question Time
Let us have as many as possible present to remind
Jack McConnell that we are still out on strike.
Friday 14 May: Nursery Nurses Meeting 12.30
Augustine Church George IV Bridge (opposite
UNISON Office)
Monday 10 May: 9.00am - 11.00am Quadrangle
City Chambers, High Street, Edinburgh
MEETING FRIDAY 14 MAY
Venue to be announced - check back for details.
To discuss motion continued from 7 May meeting,
receive update on ballot result and plan further
strategy.
MEETING 7 May
Meeting of all Edinburgh Nursery Nurses Friday
7 May at 12.30pm, Old Royal High School,
Edinburgh.
MEETING 26 APRIL, DETAILS
Meeting of all Edinburgh Nursery Nurses Monday
26 April at 12.30pm, Royal College of Surgeons,
Nicolson Street, Edinburgh (opposite the
Festival Theatre). Notice with briefing has
been sent out to all members.
See the important statements below....
21/4/04: The following statement was
issued after a UNISON Scotland Nursery Nurses
Meeting on 20/04/04. In light of this, UNISON
City of Edinburgh officers and nursery nurse
leaders will meet the council and report to
nursery nurses for decisions on the way forward
at the meeting on Monday 26 April.
A statement from the branch
secretary follows the UNISON Scotland statement.
UNISON Scotland Statement
Nursery nurses to investigate local deals
in attempt to break the deadlock
Nursery nurses who have been on all-out strike
for the last seven weeks, today announced that
they would investigate the offers and the commitment
of local authorities who had not yet settled,
to try and break the deadlock and ensure the
best possible deal for nursery nurses still
on strike.
A recent meeting of nursery nurse delegates
examined details of offers from across the local
authorities, and agreed to enter local negotiations.
The nursery nurses will remain on strike until
a satisfactory offer is accepted by them.
Joe Di Paola (UNISON's Scottish Organiser -
Local Government) said: "We are bitterly disappointed
that CoSLA has simply blocked all attempts to
resolve this dispute nationally. Despite agreement
that regrading claims would be allowed until
single status was introduced, and despite the
overwhelming justice of the case for a national
grade, CoSLA have pig-headedly refused to accept
the sense of this. The huge differences between
the pay offers shows how right we are in arguing
for a national deal. The hourly rates on offer
range from £8.76 - £10.46 per hour
- a difference of £1.70 an hour! We intend
to ask these employers how they justify these
differences given the similarity of the jobs
nursery nurses do. Branches will now seek local
negotiations and we will be using this information
to try and bring some fairness into nursery
nurses pay.
"We also want the Executive to set up its review
into the pre-five sector as soon as possible.
It is clear that to ensure that government plans
are delivered they need the nursery nurses'
co-operation. It will require more than politicians'
platitudes to deliver that now."
Angela Lynes (Chair of UNISON's negotiators)
said "UNISON feels that it couldn't treat its
members in the same way as the employers have.
Nursery nurses have given their all, have ensured
that their role in early years education has
been brought to the forefront of the public
and have ensured that local deals will be better
than they otherwise would have been. It is not
easy to move to local negotiations but we can
no longer ask nursery nurses to continue to
suffer in the face of the employers intransigence."
The union paid tribute to the support for the
action from its members, from parents, and from
the public.
Carol Ball (Chair of UNISON's Nursery Nurse
Working Party) said "We have had magnificent
support from the vast majority of nursery nurses
- it has been incredible how this low paid,
non-militant workforce has responded. We have
also had tremendous support from parents - even
though they and their children have been suffering
- and the public. This is an attempt to break
the deadlock by the nursery nurses, who are
showing far more maturity and consideration
for their service than CoSLA has done. We also
need to warn authorities that unless settlements
reflect the professional role of nursery nurses
then they will not get the professional service
- this is not a capitulation. Nursery nurses
are not going away and this dispute now moves
onto different levels."
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UNISON Edinburgh Branch Statement
UNISON CITY OF EDINBURGH BRANCH
While it regrets the lack of willingness from
CoSLA to reach a fair national settlement for
nursery nurses and remains committed to a national
settlement being the only long term solution
to the problems facing early years care and
education, UNISON City of Edinburgh Branch has
been authorised by a national meeting of nursery
nurse delegates to seek a local resolution to
the nursery nurses dispute.
The branch is now in dispute with the council
and the industrial action will continue until
a settlement is reached at Edinburgh level.
With offers around Scotland varying by £1.70
an hour, it underlines the problems of 'Dutch
auctions' between councils in nursery nurses
pay - a lesson Edinburgh should have learned
from the crisis in recruitment in Social Work.
UNISON therefore believes that an Edinburgh
settlement must reflect the city's capital status,
its commitment to early years education and
care and it must avoid future recruitment and
industrial relations problems.
UNISON welcomes the distance the council has
travelled thus far in attempting to reach a
settlement. However, this has already been rejected
by a very well attended meeting of nursery nurses
and would be therefore likely to be rejected
in a ballot.
UNISON considers that a further increase in
Edinburgh's offer would go a long way to resolving
the dispute. We would therefore wish to further
clarify the offer and its application with a
view to arriving at a negotiated settlement
which we could recommend to our members.
John Stevenson
Branch Secretary
21/4/04
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