Bradford Council workers have agreed at a mass meeting to call off strike action which would have crippled services across the district.

The 1,500 staff who met in St George's Hall voted unanimously to accept a deal hammered out by the public services union Unison and the Council at regional conciliation talks.

Workers had already staged a half-day stoppage, and computer staff were poised for an indefinite strike which would have hit every Council department.

Both sides were deadlocked after the Council served notice on terms in the workers' employment contracts relating to redundancy and re-deployment. It also proposed changes in the timescale of salary protection if people were re-deployed into lower-paid jobs.

Union officials told the meeting at St George's Hall that references to compulsory redundancy had been removed and there were more robust re-deployment proposals.

Members were told that the new agreements restored to workers the right of appeal to councillors in dismissal cases.

The deal also includes a new employee code of practice on procurement of Council services, and a revised re-deployment, re-training and redundant post agreement.

Joint Unison branch chairman Liz Devlin said: "We are pleased with the outcome of the dispute. Our concession on pay protection was, on balance, the best that could be achieved through negotiation and our members accepted that."

She said the union was sorry it had been "forced" to resort to industrial action but had always been sure that, with good will on both sides, the dispute could be resolved.

Deputy Council leader Councillor Richard Wightman said: "The Council is very pleased to have reached an agreement. We believe that the deal we have reached is good for all sides."