Unison's Scottish secretary Matt Smith said, 'The first wave of action has demonstrated that the nursery nurses are dedicated, hardworking and conscientious professionals. But they will pursue their regrading claim until they gain recognition for their professional status, and secure fair pay.'
He added, 'It is disappointing that the employer, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA), has not changed its position. Unison has been overwhelmed by the public support for nursery nurses. It's a shame COSLA is failing to recognise this and is not moving to end the dispute.'
Last week COSLA called a meeting of representatives from all 32 local councils to update them on the situation. In a statement released on Monday this week, Councillor Frank Russell, COSLA's personnel spokesman, said councillors had expressed 'unanimous support' for the line COSLA was taking.
He said, 'In a bid to find a solution so that this does not rumble on all summer, the employers have established a very short-life technical working group to prepare a core job outline for a nursery nurse, evaluate the job and attach a salary level to it.' The job is to be evaluated using the job evaluation scheme used to develop the Single Status Agreement, but at this stage will not be evaluated by the Scottish Joint Council, which includes representatives from trade unions and local authority employers.
Councillor Russell said that although the unions had declined the offer to join the group, employers would 'forge ahead with the technical group which would take on board statements in the claim made regrading career structures and job descriptions'.
He reiterated that COSLA was still prepared to meet with the unions to try to end the dispute. Dan Brown, a strategic director at COSLA, said he was meeting with representatives from Unison, GMB and TGWU at a joint secretaries meeting of the Scottish Joint Council on Tuesday 1 July.
But Joe Di Paola, Unison's Scottish organiser for local government, who was due to attend, said 'This is not a negotiating meeting for nursery nurses.'
He said the council includes all Scottish council employees, apart from teachers, and a range of issues would be discussed. Mr Di Paola said there were no future negotiating meetings planned with COSLA. 'As far as we're concerned we are continuing with our action.'
At an event organised by Unison to discuss the public sector agenda, which also took place last week, Mr Di Paola said a number of Scottish MSPs from all parties had expressed an interest in the nursery nurse dispute.
Those who have been sympathetic in the past include Margaret Jamieson, Labour MSP for Kilmarnock and Loudoun, whose daughter was a student nursery nurse, as well as Dennis Canavan, independent MSP for Falkirk West, Nicola Sturgeon, SNP MSP for Glasgow, Cathy Peattie, Labour MSP for Falkirk East, and Michael Matheson, SNP MSP for Central Scotland.
Around 1,000 nursery nurses plan to continue with a rolling programme of strikes across Scotland over the summer.
