Low-paid civil servants in Northern Ireland are to receive over £100m in back-pay to redress inequality it has emerged.
Around 9,000 civil servants in the lowest grades, two-thirds of them women, are to receive the back-pay following concerns in the Stormont power-sharing executive.
Over 60% of the civil servants employed at the AA and AO grades are from a Catholic background.
Stormont Finance Minister Peter Robinson revealed the plan to give the civil servants six years of back-pay in a written reply to a question in the Northern Ireland Assembly from Democratic Unionist Assembly member Simon Hamilton.
People who have retired from the Civil Service over the last six years will be entitled to the back-pay, which could be up to £20,000.
Civil servants working in the roads service and vehicle testing centres will be among those who will benefit from the payouts once negotiations with the trade unions are completed.
