The T&GWU launched a campaign in November 1999 to raise the status of childcare in Britain and Ireland and recruit new members, and has been particularly successful in Scotland. Childcare officer Margaret Ann Jones, who is based in Glasgow, said, 'We have new members who work in both local authority and private nurseries and out-of-school care, and the numbers are increasing all the time.'
She cited Summerston After-School Care, a Glasgow out-of-school club run on a voluntary basis and attached to a primary school, as a recent example of the benefits membership could bring. 'The staff at Summerston didn't know any of their working rights. We negotiated a 13 per cent pay rise for them, from 4.64 to 5.25 an hour, and also increased their holiday entitlement by two days a year,' said Ms Jones. The Summerston members also plan to enter the union's stakeholder pension scheme.
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