Nursery nurses are striking over pay

The public sector union Unison claimed there has been no fresh approach from employers to try and resolve the dispute.

Nurseries in East, North and South Ayrshire; Perth; Argyll and Bute; Moray; Aberdeenshire; Dumfries and Galloway; Stirling; the Borders; and Orkney are being affected.

In September about 5,000 nursery nurses walked out after they rejected a pay offer by the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla).

Nursery nurses want to get back to the job of educating and caring for children Carol Ball, Unison

Nursery nurses, who are paid about �13,000 a year, want an increase of �4,000 a year to reflect the extra duties they say they have had to undertake.

Cosla has repeatedly urged union officials to end the strike action and return to the negotiating table.

It offered a new grading system which would enable fully qualified nurses to earn �18,000 a year.

But Unison rejected the offer and said it would leave too much room for discretion.

Joe Di Paola, Unison's Scottish organiser for local government, said Cosla should act to avoid further disruption.

'Huge disappointment'

He said: "What Cosla is doing is creating more and more problems for parents.

"It knows that this is the case and yet it refuses to talk to us.

"Everyone now recognises that the recommendation that it made would be worth nothing to the vast bulk of nursery nurses, even if councils chose to implement it."

Carol Ball, chair of Unison's Scottish nursery nurses working party, said: "It is a huge disappointment to nursery nurses to have to intensify their action.

"We know it hurts our children and their parents. Even at this stage we would call on the employers to re-open talks in Scotland.