CALL centre workers have voted to accept an offer from their employer to end a dispute that was threatening to lead to industrial action.

Members of finance union Unifi, at Lloyds TSB, had threatened action in protest at the closure of an office in Newcastle on Tyne, with the loss of up to 1,000 jobs.

The bank's assurance that it would offer a job to anyone at the centre who wanted to remain with the company was accepted in a ballot by 59.5 per cent of union members.

Unifi negotiator Bernadette Fisher said: "Our members clearly feel that the bank's undertaking is of real value to them and they do not wish the union to proceed to an industrial action ballot. It is now time for the union and the bank to get down to the real detail of how to assure the future of contact centre staff."