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Nursery
Nurse Dispute
6 April: Evening News story
In case today's Evening News Headline causes
any confusion, please read the whole story.
There are no local talks and the position is
still the same as agreed at the Nursery Nurse
meeting on 5 April (below). There will be no
further movement until after the UNISON meeting
with CoSLA on Wed 7 April (evening). Look out
for updates here as soon as we get them.
Nursery Nurse meeting 5 April - Decisions
and Branch Secretary Report
The meeting decided to mandate the Branch Secretary
to enter into talks to clarify the offer locally
while continuing to be committed to national
bargaining. The Branch Secretary only to do
this in the context of collating information
for discussion at national level and when the
OK is given by the UNISONScotland Organiser
for Local Government.
NURSERY NURSES DISPUTE - BRANCH SECRETARY'S
REPORT 4 April 2004
National Position
Your Nursery Nurses Working Group took a recommendation
to the National Industrial Action Committee
in London on Wed 31 March which was accepted.
This called for:
1. Clarification of local offers
2. These offers to be brought to Scottish level
to identify best practice
3. Attempts to be made to achieve consistent
offers across councils as a 'national' position.
4. The action to continue.
Request for talks from CoSLA
On Tue 30 March, CoSLA asked for talks but
not negotiations with UNISON. UNISON is responding
to this but believes that it is probably not
a way forward if it is only a response to pressure
from the First Minister. We are awaiting word
of what transpires.
Despite what may have been reported in the
press, there have been no talks with CoSLA and
no request from UNISON to end the dispute. This
resulted from a mistaken briefing by a political
spokesperson and other unknown quarters. There
have been no 'behind closed doors' talks and
the meeting with CoSLA referred to by the press
was in fact a meeting about Single Status and
Job Evaluation.
Local Position
The City of Edinburgh has presented a 'clarified'
offer which at first sight looks like probably
the worst in Scotland and is still a pay cut
from £13,896 at the top of the grade to
£13,514 if you compare like with like,
ie 39 weeks and 32.5 hours.
The main differences from the previous offer
are:
1. The extra 2.5 hours are dropped pending
local agreement
2. Back pay to 1 April 2003
3. A commitment to revise job outlines, titles
and career progression with the union.
4. This is clearly labeled as an 'initial'
proposal (their italics).
Other local settlements
It has been very difficult to get accurate
details on local settlements and I suspect some
local officials may not always have understood
them. The only documented offers I have are
documented below.
What you need to decide
As I said at the last meeting, it will not
be enough to take Edinburgh's paper offer (or
anyone's paper offer) into national level. We
will need to clarify what they mean by 'initial'
and tease out what their best offer might be.
I am therefore seeking your authority to enter
into talks to clarify the offer locally - but
not to settle. This will only be to see if a
final offer is enough to put into the national
structure. I cannot do this unless you agree
and I cannot do this until the go-ahead comes
from UNISONScotland's head of local government
later this week.
John Stevenson
Branch Secretary
DOCUMENTED SETTLEMENTS SO FAR
In most cases 39 weeks is calculated as 45.656
weeks to take into account holiday entitlement
for staff with over 5 years service - it does
not mean working any more weeks than 39. The
deals will therefore be slightly less for those
with less than 5 years service. The main point
is that I have tried to compare what nursery
nurses are earning now for a 39 week year at
the top of the scale with what they would earn
working the same 39 weeks.
Most of the offers are pro-rata but the figures
show what staff would actually be paid for 39
weeks. 52 week staff would be paid about 33%
more.
Perth & Kinross
£13,896 moves to £15,352 which they
say is the national offer.
Stirling
£13,896 moves to £15,352 52 week
35 hr staff move from 16,449 to 18,441. They
also say this is the national offer.
Aberdeen
Difficult to calculate as it places 52 week
equivalent on AP3 (£17,340 to £19,029)
for 36.25 hours. But if it is based on 45.656
weeks (ie 39 plus holidays) it would be:- £13,
896 moves to £14,979
East Renfrewshire
Based on a 35 hour week
£13,896 moves to £16,360
Falkirk
Based on 35 hours
From 1 April 2004 £13,896 moves to £15,761
From 1 April 2005 £13,896 moves to £16,242
South Lanarkshire
Based on 35 hours, 39 weeks, although they have
a higher rate at the top to begin with:-
£14,698 moves to £15,777
Highland
£13,896 moves to £14,817 BUT you
have to work 41 instead of 39 weeks.
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