| As Dundee City Council administration leader Jill Shimi renewed her plea for Unison to come back and talk about new pay scales to avoid any further strikes, the union’s local branch secretary Rory Malone said that following national meetings tomorrow a meeting of the Dundee nursery nurses was planned to make a final decision on whether talks should restart.
‘‘We’ll be meeting at the University Tower Block at 6pm on Thursday night and the nurses will decide themselves,’’ he said.
Nursery nurses at educational establishments in the city went on strike for a week last month, closing 30 facilities in the city, as part of the dispute over new pay scales. The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities has made a recommendation to councils that would see top salaries rise to £18,000, but Unison has claimed that some of their members would have to work 600 hours extra a year to get to that level and thus earn at a lower hourly rate than at present.
Unison want discussions at a national level but COSLA has recommended that member councils should conduct negotiations with their own employees. Nursery nurses at social work establishments in Dundee — who already work a full 40 hour week — have accepted the new deal after discussions with the city council. Councillor Shimi today made her second call for Unison to come back and talk. ‘‘We have a period of uncertainty at the moment which doing no-one any good,’’ she said. ‘‘I would ask them to come back and talk about it.
‘‘There is not going to be a national agreement, and all but eight of the 32 councils in Scotland are now in negotiations. The majority of councils are discussing this matter at local level and Dundee should be one of them.’’
Council chief executive Alex Stephen has already assured Unison that education staff will not lose out under the new deal, even if they opted to continue working their present reduced hours. |
