EARLY years workers will ballot for strike actin over North Lanarkshire Council fire-and-rehire and pay cut proposals, Unison has said.

The council has proposed to make higher-graded workers redundant, before rehiring them two grades lower, a move that could cost some workers as much as £6,500, according to Unison.

The union carried out a consultation of affected workers and found that 96 per cent of affected workers opposed the proposals, with 91 per cent saying they were in favour of taking strike action to defeat them.

Unison North Lanarkshire branch secretary Marie Quigley said: “Early years workers made it overwhelmingly clear they are willing to strike unless these plans are dropped.

“It’s unacceptable to slash pay in this way.

“At a time when it’s even harder to make ends meet, these mostly women workers are being asked to do the same work for considerably less.

“The council must withdraw the plans and end their anxiety.”

A spokesperson from North Lanarkshire Council said: “It was agreed to align resources to the previously agreed staffing model which was adopted in 2019 to support the delivery of 1140 hours. The NLC9 Early Learning Practitioner posts are not part of this agreed structure.

"The use of terminology such as ‘fire and re-hire’ by the trade union is not what is proposed at all. All staff are highly valued and we will continue to work closely with staff and the trade unions at individual engagement sessions to bring forward plans to support all staff directly within this specific group and explore other potential opportunities within the service for them.”