Report to the People
5th April 2004
Telephones, not Megaphones, will end
Dispute
Having
been involved, in one way or another, in various pieces of industrial action
throughout my life, I know only too well that the longer a dispute drags on, the
more entrenched the positions become and the further away compromise slips.
This,
I fear, is where the ongoing dispute between local authority nursery nurses and
Inverclyde Council is in danger of going. We
have not yet seen (at the time of writing, at least) any obvious signs of the
sort of movement needed to secure a resolution.
This
situation cannot continue. That
would be a disaster.
The
dispute has already gone on too long. Hardworking
families are struggling to get by without the childcare upon which they rely:
some are working extra overtime just so they can afford private childcare, some
are imposing on grandparents and others are simply unable to go to their work.
And every day a child’s nursery is closed is another day of early years
education on which he or she has missed out.
The
nursery nurses do, in my view, have a point. Their role has changed a lot in recent years.
It is about more than, as some would have it, reading the odd story and
keeping an eye on the sandpit. Pre-five
education is crucial to a child’s development – especially for the poorest
and most disadvantaged, to whom nursery education really helps give a better
start in life.
This
is a fact, incidentally, not lost on the Scottish Parliament – some £137
million a year has been provided to ensure that all three and four-year-olds are
able to benefit from free pre-school education. And, with 83% of three-year-olds and 99% of four-year-olds
now in nursery, it’s clear parents also appreciate its value.
Nursery
nurses’ working practices also vary greatly.
They have a vast range of experience, skills, duties, shift patterns,
holidays and contracts. And this,
combined with the fact that 12 councils around the country have already reached
a settlement, means that a national pay agreement is simply not an option at the
moment.
But,
as I have argued for some time, what is an option is a proper, nationwide review
of the role of nursery nurses, how they are employed and their career structure
– not just in establishments run by the council, but also those operated by
the private and voluntary sectors.
The
settling of this dispute would clear the way for such a national review. But
that’s not going to happen until the megaphones are put down and the
telephones picked up.
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