Reading Nurses Pay Cut.HELP!

Reading Nurses Pay Cut.HELP!

by: dj.in.brighton - 21-11-09 10:28

What a disgrace!

Last May it was Devon council's NNs.Now Reading.

Last year Portsmouth did it. 

And its done in the name of "equalities"!!!! 

Many years ago,many of us (I'm a nursery nurse and union rep) expected "single status"  and equal pay legeslation to lead to underpaid and undervalued female dominated jobs being given better recognition of our skills and resposibilites in the form of better pay.

Then the government found £BILLIONS for the banks,and now equal pay means pay cuts!!!

But only for low paid workers of course.Most chief executive officers of councils are male.But they're excluded from this!! SICK!

I would advise all reading nursery nurses in Reading to join unison (or the GMB if they're the main organisers already),but don't stop there.Some one in each nursery should volunteer to be union representative.

If you read the "have your say" discussion board about Devon's pay cut threat earlier this year,you'll see that nursery nurses need to be involved in the union,pushing them to fight for you and keeping you informed about all negotiations.The unions need to organise meetings for members in nurseries to discuss what to do.And they need to publicise this wage cut amongst other council staff,most of whom would be horrified and many would want to help.

Maybe Reading unison is already doing this,in which case great.Could Nursery World report more on what the unions are doing,as they did in Devon?

This site is read by unison officers in London,so could somebody please explain what my union is doing to bring together nursery nurses nationally to do something about what appears to be a terrible situation for public sector nursery nurses.

We know from friends in private daycare and Nursery World that most nursery staff are paid near minimum wage and having their pay frozen this year.(NW reported 60% have had this to keep costs down in the recession).But it is a disgrace.We are having to learn new skills around EYFS,going on training courses,taking on more responsibility,yet pay cuts are our reward.

We were never in our jobs for the money. (were chief execs?MPs?Bankers?).But that doesn't mean that we should live off even less.

So tragic too to hear 5 people will leave.I can't say I blame them,but what a terrible break up of a working,caring team. 

Maybe its time we started acting more like men.

In my town,street cleaners and bin workers were told to accept a pay cut of up to 25% in the name of "equality".Some of us have husbands doing these jobs,and peoples homes were threatened. I was pleased that my colleagues   keeping my city clean voted to strike by 93% to strike.Their union the GMB backed them,and by the 2nd day of the strike,the council backed down.

So pay cuts can be stopped with a bit of unity,determination,and support from other workers in the council and city.

Good luck! 

by: billabong

I would like to say it's unbelievable but it isn't. Reading I urge you to FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT!!!

by: Abs

READING get together as many of you as you can and fight as hard as you can!! They will not get rid of nursery nurses we are special and we do a special job, look at dcc nursery nurses pay cut and contact us through our e mail address . We have managed to find alot of the nursery nurses in our area, it has been worth it as the support we have been able to give each other has been amazing. None of us had even met before but we are good friends now. We are not giving up and neither should you.

Be brave and fight, you're worth it!!

by: dj.in.brighton

If any NNs from Reading are reading this,please post here and tell us all what we can do to support you.

If you aren't from Reading (I'm not) please post a message here in support of our colleagues in Reading.Let them know they're not alone. 

by: jellybean

I'm in Oxford, very near to Reading. fight we must protect our status!

by: red sun

I'm in Oxford too and used to manage a nursery in Reading so I know alot of NN's there. I'll do what I can to help - good luck all!

by: dj.in.brighton

Does anyone know of other councils that have tried this trick - cutting the pay of NNs by changing their contracts?

I only know of Devon and Reading because its been in "nursery world" and Portsmouth because a friend told me.Can NW editors or Unison give details of any more such pay cuts,as it seems unlikely that these are the only 3 cases. 

by: Liz

This has happened in many parts of the country under the Single Status Agreement under which all local authorities have been meant to evaluate pay of council employees across different occupations. Although it seemed that mainly female jobs such as nursery nurses should benefit because they had been under-valued in comparison to 'male' jobs, in many places it has actually meant that nursery nurses have been changed to term-time only contracts and lost money.

The whole process has been very slow and some local authorities have still not implemented SSA. Now it is complicated by the introduction of the new body for School Support staff, which will be coming up with national pay scales - so the whole thing could all change again.

If you search our archive for Single Status Agreement, you will find many stories such as this and this. Here's one on the School Support Staff Negotiating Body too

by: dj.in.brighton

Thaanks for that Liz

Do you have any links to what unison is doing? 

by: billabong

dj I will liase with all of the Devon gang (even though most of the members of this site 'teacher bash' !!!!!