About 250 staff gathered at HQ

Hundreds of workers faced losing up to �8,000 a year after a year-long review which the force said cost �150,000.

On Friday, the force said they would keep their wage levels and those offered rises would keep them.

Workers are demanding an independent investigation into the review and a pledge of no more reviews of pay.

All organisations have to review how they pay their staff Assistant Chief Constable Caroline Winter

Chief Constable Maria Wallis has already apologised to staff for the way in which the review took place, but she has rejected calls to resign.

But many workers are still unhappy with the process and want it scrapped.

About 250 staff gathered at the force's headquarters at Middlemoor on Monday to march three-quarters of a mile to the police authority's offices to show their anger.

They want written guarantees that they will not lose money, a scrapping of the pay evaluation which led to the dispute, and an independent inquiry into the way the review was handled.

Assistant Chief Constable Caroline Winter said: "The pay review will be reviewed, but it will not necessarily be scrapped.

"There were quite a lot of disparities that had to be put right.

"All organisations have to review how they pay their staff. We will learn from this and make sure that whatever happens in the future will take place in a much better way."

Figure disputed

She urged union members not to take industrial action.

"Members who stood to lose will now no longer do so, and I would urge them to wait for the results of an independent review which is what we are likely to be doing."

She disputed an earlier figure which put the cost of the pay review at �1.5m.

She said: "We had put aside �150,000 to carry out the review. That included software, bringing in a consultant and some of the overtime staffed worked to carry it out.

"We had put aside �1.5m because we had anticipated that our costs would rise as a result of job evaluation."

Chief Constable Maria Wallis later met with representatives of the Unison, T&G and GMB trade unions.