Probe after South Tyneside Council staff not paid

Council bosses in South Tyneside are investigating why 6,000 staff were not paid on time.

Workers should have had monthly salaries paid into their bank accounts on Wednesday.

But the authority said its entire workforce, including teaching staff, had not been paid.

A council spokesman apologised and said salaries would now go into accounts on Thursday, a day late.

A spokesman for the union Unison, which represents the bulk of council staff, said it had received "many calls" from worried members.

The council spokesman said the error was an "isolated incident" and an investigation was being carried out into what went wrong.