HEALTH workers in Scotland forced to retire from their jobs because of conditions diagnosed as ME or chronic fatigue syndrome are less likely to be awarded ill-health pensions than similar workers in England and Wales.

That is the view of retired nurse Monica Dale and her husband Andrew, who have led a successful two-year campaign south of the Border for a more sympathetic and consistent policy by pensions administrators towards sufferers.

''There is now a difference between England and Scotland,'' says Dale. ''The process seems to be rather arbitrary in Scotland and we are trying to approach them to address the situation.''

The Dales formed CASH - Campaign Advice and Support for Healthworkers - after Monica was advised to retire on ill-health grounds because of CFS. Her occupational health consultant and GP had said she was permanently unable to do her job as night sister in charge of the surgical unit of a busy general hospital.

It took 11 months to persuade the NHS pensions agency that she was entitled to an early pension, and the campaign has since achieved a review of the entire process used to determine cases.

''There are definitely two schools of thought, either doctors believe in it or they don't,'' Dale says.

It was important that the Scottish Office Pensions Agency (Sopa) allowed applicants to supply reports from recognised consultants, ''to help the examining doctors see that in this difficult area there may be an element of bowing to greater knowledge and expertise''.

Since the NHS pensions administration has been privatised in England and Wales - it is now being run by a company called Medical & Industrial Services - applicants have been treated more gently with an undertaking given to review any rejected case in six or 12 months.

Dale says: ''Many healthworkers feel that because managers have told them they should retire, they are entitled to the pension they have paid in for, if the illness fits the 'permanent incapacity' criteria.

''Sadly this is not the case, and only later do they find out that the health trusts have nothing to do with pensions departments, and have no significant input.''

Niccola Simpson of Dennistoun in Glasgow was first diagnosed as suffering from ME in 1987 when working as a nurse at Perth Royal Infirmary.

She says: ''I was off work for 10-and-a-half months, returned to work part-time using up annual leave, and in 1988 I moved to Glasgow Royal Infirmary.''

By 1990, Simpson had apparently made a full recovery.

''In 1995, my ME came back with a vengeance. I have not worked since September 1995 and my job was terminated in early 1996.

''The occupational health consultant recommended I apply for my ill-health pension and so did my line manager. But when I went for the medical for my pension I was told by the doctor who did it that I had only a 20% chance of getting it.''

She then read an article by Monica Dale, contacted her union, the Royal College of Nursing, and obtained a consultant's report from Ninewells Hospital in Dundee.

''I was able to show that to go back to that job would be detrimental to my health.''

Simpson, now 45, had been a nurse in the cardiothoracic unit where heart transplants take place, and had worked in the health service for 21 years. She has been awarded an ill-health pension, she believes possibly because she also suffers from osteoarthritis.

But Ian Lee of Edinburgh, who was made redundant from his job as a dental technician at the Edinburgh Dental Hospital four years ago when he was 34, is still fighting for what he sees as his rightful ill-health pension.

He says: ''They said redundancy was my only option because I could not work.

''At the end of the day it comes down to getting a doctor who can say it is permanent, and they are only dealing with certain doctors.

''The doctor should have to know his stuff when it comes to ME.''

Lee, who worked in the health service for 11 years, cannot access his pension which is now frozen until he reaches retirement age, and is unsure whether to take his case to a final appeal which would leave him with no hope of any future review. He says: ''I don't know what to do, I think I will wait and hope that things change.''

Sopa has a contract with Lanarkshire Health Board to carry out pension medicals.

Monica Dale says: ''It is very difficult to understand on what the examining doctors base their decisions, and there is never any feedback to back up their conclusions. The whole system does, therefore, feel arbitrary, though I am assured that it isn't.''

A spokesperson for Sopa says: ''We recognise that deciding whether the incapacity is likely to be permanent is particularly difficult where the applicant is suffering from chronic fatugue syndrome, but there are a number of other illnesses which our medical advisers have to consider where this could equally be said to be so.

''In common with other public service schemes, the agency obtains medical advice from experienced occupational health physicians.

''They consider each case on its merits and they are able to request specialist advice if they think that necessary.''