IN response to Mr J O'Connor letter (The Bolton News, February 28) re equal pay.

As an employee of Bolton Council for the past 32 years, most of those years spent cleaning, we used to have a bonus, just like the bin men.

This bonus was brought in through time study in 1974.

In 1989, DLO took over the cleaning contract, and, to keep our jobs, we lost the bonus, so we lost out from 1989, and our workload increased.

The workload of dinner ladies also increased.

As a loser in the equal pay pay-out, you can perhaps understand my feelings.

Both the Union and Bolton Council say the bonus has nothing to do with the pay-out, and say we were too late in applying. There was a six-month deadline. No one was told until November, the deadline was December.

Mrs K Charlton Harper Green Road Farnworth