HEALTH care assistants at the Royal Bolton Hospital have accepted a new pay deal, ending a nine-month dispute.

More than 90 assistants, employed by the Bolton, Trafford and Salford Mental Health Trust, claimed that they were not being paid the same rates of pay as their Salford counterparts.

They staged a series of demonstrations over the summer and were balloted by their union, Unison, to take disruptive action. However, bosses at the Trust, which now controls all mental health services in Bolton, have offered to place the Bolton workers on higher pay, based on the Whitley Council rates which is a national benchmark used by the majority of health trusts throughout the country for pay.

In April 2003, the staff will receive a further set of pay awards for specialised areas and by April 2004 will get special enhancements, bringing them in line with Salford mental health workers.

Stuart Carter from Unison said: "It has been a long drawn out deal but there is now a staged harmonisation. The deal was accepted by 70 per cent of the members, so not everybody was happy with it. But it means the Bolton staff can now be put on the same wage as staff nationally. I think our action was a success."

No one was available from the Bolton, Trafford and Salford Mental Health Trust to comment.