As all out strike action by UNISON led Nursery Nurses enters its fifth week, with no apparent resolution in sight, Elaine Smith, MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, will lead a debate in the Scottish Parliament this Thursday 1st April around a motion aimed and finding a solution. The debate starts just after 17.05 and you can watch it live and in full on this site.

This will be the third time since October 2003 that the Scottish Parliament will have debated the Nursery Nurses dispute, and this online forum, opened in conjunction with the first of these, led on that occasion by Carolyn Leckie MSP for Central Scotland, will now specifically focus upon the latest parliamentary motion tabled by Elaine Smith and already signed by another 23 MSPs of many different parties.

Elaine Smith’s Motion states:


Nursery Nurses’ Pay and Conditions—That the Parliament recognises that the job of nursery nurse represents one of the remaining professions characterised by both an almost exclusively female workforce and an overarching legacy of low pay; notes however, that the increased academic and professional demands upon nursery nurses have been consistently recognised by both the Parliament and wider society in recent months; expresses concern that this consensual public recognition has not been reflected in the form of an adequate and timely settlement for those nursery nurses currently jeopardising their own financial security in an attempt to obtain a remuneration package that fairly represents their job and responsibilities; conveys regret that nursery nurses have now voted overwhelmingly for indefinite strike action to begin on 1 March 2004 that will result in widespread disruption to children’s education and massive inconvenience for parents; acknowledges that this dispute represents a potential watershed not only for the future of the nursery service and early years education but also for the issue of equal pay in Scotland, and suggests that a possible route to a satisfactory settlement would be a national review of the nursery service followed by a Scotland-wide regrading of the role of nursery nurses.

Supported by: Eleanor Scott, Marlyn Glen, Chris Ballance, Patrick Harvie, Robin Harper, Frances Curran, Margaret Jamieson, Dr Jean Turner, Susan Deacon, Cathy Peattie, Scott Barrie, Donald Gorrie, Fiona Hyslop, Kate Maclean, Helen Eadie, Shiona Baird, Janis Hughes, Johann Lamont, Jackie Baillie, Mike Watson, Cathie Craigie, Dr Elaine Murray, Karen Gillon R


Get Posting!

A new discussion thread on our existing Nursery Nurse forum has specifically been opened to address the points in Elaine Smith’s motion. Please use this strand to make your specific comments on it and the parliamentary debate around it. You are of course free to continue to post to any of the other strands.

And please also read the posts to date – within them you will find much information and opinion on this long running dispute, much from people directly involved, either as striking nursery nurses or as parents.

And UNISON and COSLA? Let’s hear from you. Presumably you have computers in these offices of yours!


Useful links

UNISON

COSLA

Elaine Smith MSP

Carolyn Leckie MSP

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