Nursery staff to strike in council pension row

Staff at six council-run nurseries in Barnsley are to go on strike in November in a dispute over the authority's plans to transfer the running of the centres to a private operator, a union has said.

The GMB union said its members feared their terms and conditions would change due to the move away from Barnsley Council, and their pensions would no longer be managed by the authority despite assurances they would not be altered.

The affected nurseries were in Darfield, Bolton-Upon-Dearne, Grimethorpe, Worsbrough, Athersley and Thurnscoe, the union said.

Barnsley Council said it had been in talks about moving the nurseries to private ownership since 2024, and was "disappointed" by the strike vote.

The council said it had been working to transfer the nurseries - which take children from three months to five years old - in a bid to protect jobs and retain services for families.

According to the GMB union, nursery staff were told by the council they would be moved to the private company's basic statutory pension scheme, despite "repeated promises" from the authority that staff would keep their existing local government pensions.

As a result, the union said, there had been a "unanimous vote" and its members at the affected nurseries would go on strike next month.

The union added that families of children at the nurseries had been made aware.

Vicky Austin, regional organiser for the GMB in the North East, Yorkshire & Humber Region, said all the nurseries were at the locations of former Sure Start children's centres and were in Barnsley's most deprived areas.

One nursery, in Goldthorpe, had already closed, leaving many families in difficulty as many of the children from there were from non-working households and there was a high rate of SEND among the children, Austin said.

A move by GMB members to the private provider's basic statutory pension scheme would result in "a significantly lower payout in their retirement and removes their Death in Service entitlement", she said.

Austin added that the vote for industrial action had been a "decisive result" and showed Barnsley Council "can't dismiss this issue any more".

"These workers will not take this lying down, even if it means an autumn of disruptions for the nurseries," she said.

"We demand that Barnsley Council get around the table and start discussions with us on how to resolve this issue."

William Brown, Reform UK leader of Barnsley Council, said: "We're disappointed that GMB members have voted in favour of strike action.

"The decision to transfer these nurseries to another provider was taken to protect jobs and retain these services for families.

"We're continuing to engage with GMB representatives to see if we can find a way forward to avoid this action and prevent disruption to services for families."

The council said a decision to transfer the nurseries was agreed at a meeting last year and consultation had been taking place since then about implementing that decision.

Private operator Limetree, which owns nurseries in Maltby, Thrybergh and Eastwood in Rotherham, said it was in talks with Barnsley Council and was unable to comment further.

The BBC understands Limetree representatives met with nursery staff in the summer to talk about a potential move, but Limetree said no contracts had been signed with the council as yet.

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