The single status agreement involves a re-evaluation of all local authority posts to harmonise payscales. The agreement was to have been implemented by 1 April 2002, but few local authorities are likely to achieve this and negotiations are underway about extending the deadline.
However, Unison's nursery nurse working group has doubts about whether the single status negotiations are going to benefit nursery nurses anyway. Their views on the possible benefits of opting out have not yet been put to the membership, which would be a necessary next step if this was to become part of the union's campaigning strategy.
Carol Ball, chair of the nursery nurses' working party, said that re-evaluating nursery nurses' jobs under the single status guidelines might not leave them significantly better off, and even if it did, local authorities have not been allocated cash to fund higher wages afterwards.
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