Unison is demanding a national agreement

The nurses' union Unison and local government umbrella group Cosla have been at loggerheads since 2003 over current pay and conditions.

Workers staged a Scotland-wide walk-out last week and will not return until a national agreement has been reached.

But Cosla maintain it is an issue which must be solved on a local level.

Local deals have been struck with staff in nine out of 32 council areas.

Grading issue

At present nursery nurses earn about �13,000 a year but they want an extra �4,000 to reflect additional duties they have had to undertake.

The union has rejected an offer from Cosla which would enable fully-qualified nurses to earn �18,000 a year.

Speaking on the BBC Scotland's Politics Show television show on Sunday, Cosla president Pat Watters said: "These negotiations were going on long before there was all-out industrial action.

"This is not a pay claim, this is a grading issue.

"Nursery nurses are part of the overall pay claim for local government and that was settled last April and there will be another pay claim going in this April and that will be settled by local government as a whole at national level.

"This is a grading dispute and that has to be solved at local level. That is what the agreement is."

National plan

But Unison's Scottish organiser Joe Di Paola said the dispute needed to be settled on a national level.

He said: "The issue is that the executive wanted and want a National Childcare strategy delivered, they want national targets met and they want a national curriculum.

He explained that he felt the nine local authorities who had settled had been forced into a deal.

He added: "They have been forced into a deal and that's sadly the employer's tactics to try and divide the nursery nurses and force them to take local deals.