Scottish councils accused the nursery nurses' trade union, Unison, of spreading misinformation about the nature of the dispute and of 'moving the goalposts' and ignoring pay offers made by individual councils.
A report published last week by the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (CoSLA) claimed that the nursery nurses wanted the same pay for working 39 weeks a years as for working 52 weeks a year, regardless of the nature of the work they do.
However, Carol Ball, head of Unison's nursery nurses working party, said last week that the nursery nurses wanted equal pay, but on a pro-rata basis, so there would be 3,700 difference in annual pay between those working 39 weeks and those working 52 weeks a year.
She said councils were not bettering CoSLA's recommendation, which Unison rejected last autumn. Last year CoSLA recommended a minimum pay rise of 6.7 per cent, with some receiving up to 12.5 per cent, backdated to 1 April 2003 with no change to the current working arrangements.
Ms Ball also pointed out that Frank Russell, an Edinburgh councillor, was on the technical working group that had put together CoSLA's recommended offer, but that he had offered Edinburgh's nursery nurses less.
The CoSLA document maintained that the dispute should be settled at a local level, because the nature of the nursery nurses' work differed depending on local needs.
But Ms Ball disagreed. 'They all have to do the same educational curriculum; they all have the same care standards,' she said. 'There is nothing markedly different from what they are delivering. Just one is open longer than the other.'
Eight local authorities have now made local settlements with nursery nurses, including East Renfrewshire and Falkirk last week.
Unison has long argued that its agreement to negotiate locally was now void, because councils had failed to produce the job evaluations that they had committed themselves to.
