A group of council workers won a swift victory in a pay dispute following unofficial strike action.

Estate services assistants at Brighton and Hove City Council, who keep the authority's blocks of flats clean, were shocked to discover £120 had been docked from their monthly wage when they got their pay slips last Wednesday.

The 40 workers staged a sit-in protest yesterday after they were sent a letter explaining the money was taken off because they had been overpaid for the previous eight months after an error.

The letter told them the council wanted to recover all the overpaid money.

In emergency negotiations with workers' union GMB, managers backed down and agreed to pay the money back immediately and continue paying the extra until next May.

After that it would be cut but the workers are due two pay increases by then and could be due additional pay after it was discovered during yesterday's negotiations they may not have been getting properly paid for work they have been carrying out for other council departments.

Mark Turner of GMB said: "These are some of the lowest-paid workers in the council and it is absolutely appalling how they were treated.

"Someone at the council took an arbitrary decision to suddenly cut their pay by a significant amount without consulting the union or the individuals."

In meetings yesterday, the GMB argued the individuals, who earn about £13,000 a year, had spent the extra money in good faith not knowing they were being overpaid and the council therefore had no right to claim it back.

It said it could not guarantee an estate service from today onwards if the issue was not resolved.

Following advice from its own lawyers, the council backed down and agreed to make emergency payments of £120 into the bank accounts of all the workers involved and keep the pay the same until the end of the financial year next April.

A council spokesman said: "It's true that, due to an administrative error, the money was deducted before staff were consulted and we do apologise for the obvious concern this has caused.

"The council will not be asking staff to pay back the overpaid wages, and we appreciate the support of the the unions in helping us to resolve the issue so swiftly."