Nurses march for better pay

Nursery nurses went on the march in Edinburgh

More than 1,000 nursery nurses have marched through Edinburgh as part of their campaign for better pay and conditions.

They have been staging two-day walkouts at local authority nurseries after rejecting the latest pay offer from local council employers.

The offer would have set a top salary of £18,000 a year, but the union Unison said workers would only earn that figure if they worked 52 weeks a year.

Unison organiser Joe Di Paola told the marchers that their pay campaign would end in victory.

He said: "The offer is no good to you, it's no good to us and on that basis it will never be accepted.

"We go on from here. We will take our case to the streets and the towns and the cities in Scotland.

Cosla offer

"You have the support of the parents and you have the support of your union.

"We will take this forward and we will take it on to victory."

During the rally traffic along one of Edinburgh's busiest roads was brought to a halt.

Many of nursery nurses carried banners, blew whistles and chanted slogans as the procession made its way to Princes Street Gardens.

The maximum salary for a fully-qualified nursery nurse with eight years' experience is £13,800, with a minimum salary of £10,000.

The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) has said its new pay guidelines could be backdated to April and would require no change to working practices.

A new hourly rate of £9.33 was proposed, with council bosses claiming that would amount to a minimum pay rise of 6.7% and up to 12.5%.