A Sellafield union say its workers' fight for a senior health and safety shop steward has been won. 

A statement by Unite says it has secured a "ground-breaking" deal to end the dispute.

It claims Sellafield Ltd and the 14-strong group of on-site sub-contractor companies have dropped their refusal to facilitate a senior shop steward to deal with health and safety, workplace welfare and training issues.

The agreement, which comes after a campaign of industrial action, including walkouts and action short of a strike, also sees the formation of a health and safety committee spanning all contractors on the site.

Mick Whitley, Unite regional secretary for the north west, said: "This victory for common sense would not have been achieved without the resolve of our members who stood shoulder to shoulder to get a better deal on health and safety.

"A healthy workplace is a more productive workplace.

"The creation of a new senior shop steward on maximum facility time at Sellafield will help make the site safer, reduce accidents and enable workforce issues to be dealt with speedily.

"It's a win-win for everyone involved in the decommissioning and renewal project at Sellafield and once again underlines the importance of trade unions in making the workplace a safer more productive place."

Sellafield Ltd said: "

"Sellafield Ltd and our employees are not directly involved in the dispute, which is in no way related to the safety of the Sellafield site.

"The dispute concerned the nature of union representation for the contractor community.

"Sellafield is a safe place to work, as proved by our track record, with 2014/15 producing one of our best ever set of safety statistics and eight gold awards from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents."