Published: 31/03/2005, Volume II5, No. 5948 Page 6
Hundreds of women hospital workers have accepted what their union says is the world's 'biggest ever' equal value pay deal.
More than 1,000 female staff from north Cumbria voted unanimously to approve the deal, which compensates them for up to 14 years of NHS pay rates that experts say unfairly favoured men.
The deal gives them the cash they would have had if they had been paid the same as higher-paid men in jobs of equal value.
The women gave the deal their blessing with a show of hands at a mass meeting in Carlisle last Thursday.
Those who sign up to the deal with North Cumbria Acute Hospitals trust will get initial payouts of up to£8,000 within a month.
Unison claims the deal is worth around£300m, with some claimants getting up to£250,000.
The women - half of them nurses - work at either West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven or Carlisle's PFI Cumberland Infirmary.
Carlisle MP Eric Martlew welcomed the compensation, but pleaded with the Department of Health to foot the bill amid fears that the trust could be plunged into financial chaos.
The compensation will be paid over three years.
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