NORTH-EAST council workers protesting over the pay packet gender gap made themselves heard yesterday.

Throughout the region female workers dressed as men and stood outside local government buildings with bills for the difference between their average pay and their male colleagues.

Unison, which represents local government workers claims the average woman council worker earns a third less than her male colleagues.

Union steward Viv Shingleton, who joined the protest outside County Hall in Durham, said a man employed in her position as a department manager would earn £8,000 more than a woman.

Similarly, a female domestic worker in a residential home earns £4.96 an hour, compared with the average male wage of £6.66.

Ms Shingleton said: "You expect the gender gap to have been sorted out before 2002. We have supposedly had 30 years of equality, but we're still nowhere near."

Protests were also held yesterday outside the Unison branch office on Westoe Road, South Shields, Gateshead Civic Centre and the offices of Redcar and Cleveland MP Ashok Kumar in Guisborough.

* A Government minister encouraged women to play a greater role in public life during a visit to the region yesterday.

Barbara Roche, Minister for Women at the Cabinet Office, urged more women to apply for national appointments on some of the 1,000 public bodies at a seminar in North Shields.

The workshop, run in conjunction with the Women's National Commission and North Tyneside Council, gave practical help and support to women thinking about applying for such appointments through interactive exercises, help with CVs and the offer of joining a mentors' network.

Ms Roche said: "Women's voices should and must be heard at national as well as local and community level.

"Not enough women who have exactly the skills and talents we need are coming forward to fill vacancies on national boards that take decisions affecting all our lives, such as the Office of Water Services, Police Complaints Authority or the Commission for Health Improvement.

"At the moment, women only hold a third of national and regional posts.