SCHOOL dinner ladies were toasting a payout of £180,000 yesterday after a six-year legal fight over pay and conditions.

About 90 staff, from schools across North Yorkshire, will receive the back pay under an agreement reached between their union, Unison, private catering contractors Castleview and North Yorkshire County Council.

The agreement was reached just as an employment tribunal was about to get under way in Leeds.

Unison claimed that when Castleview took over the catering contract, it failed to meet the requirements of the Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment (Tupe) regulations.

The county council became involved because some ex-Castleview employees went back to work for the authority and, under the Tupe laws, it had responsibility for them.

Castleview did not admit liability.