NURSERY staff could lose more than a third of their pay in proposed council cuts, unions have claimed.

Staff working at four council-run nurseries in Brighton and Hove face “life changing and devastating” pay cuts of up to £8,000 a year under new proposals.

Unions have labelled the wage cuts the biggest in council history and warn they could lead to industrial action and employment tribunals.

Labour’s lead on children Tom Bewick said that the publicly run nurseries were currently more inefficient than the private sector.

The GMB said nursery assistants faced seeing their full-time salary fall from £22,000 to £17,500 in dropping down two pay grades.

With reductions of up to 12 working hours a week, pay would fall by £8,000 in some circumstances. But the union said the cuts would not increase the amount of children each staff member looked after or a cut in opening hours.

Nurseries affected are Bright Start in Barrack Yard, Roundabout in Whitehawk, Cherry Tree in Hollingdean and Acorn in Portslade.

Jump Start in Moulsecoomb is unaffected, having had a restructure last year.

The move would save £140,000 as the council looks to end its nursery subsidy of £461,000 by 2020.

When discussions on the changes began, staff were set to be protected from wage cuts for three years but in July the council’s pay protection policy changed to one year with 75 per cent of pay protected in the second 12 months.

GMB branch secretary Mark Turner said a delay in a consultation due to run in June was a deliberate ploy to reduce the council’s financial obligations to staff.

Mr Turner said that senior management in the council’s children’s services had not been asked to take a similar cut in their executive pay.

He added: “I have never seen the anger running through the staff like this.

“It has been a very long time since we have a single cut as big as this, even during the City Clean dispute staff were facing a pay reduction of £4,500.

“The last time it came close was in 2004 when they tried to cut school support staff pay.

“There was industrial action then and I couldn’t rule out that happening again this time.”

Cllr Bewick said: “The current workforce is very expensive when compared to the private sector.

“We need to see a greater equalisation between public sector and private sector workforce.

“It is vital we have efficient services, every pound we are unnecessarily spending is money we are not spending on the children.

“The whole reason why the administration decided to keep these nurseries in public hands is the high quality of service they provide and we need to continue with that.”