South Tyneside Council apologises for pay delay

Council bosses have blamed "processing difficulties" for a delay in paying 6,000 staff.

South Tyneside Council employees should have had monthly salaries paid into their accounts on Wednesday.

But the authority's entire workforce had to wait until Thursday for cash to be credited.

A council spokesman described the delay as an "isolated incident" and apologised to staff. An investigation into what went wrong is continuing.

A spokesman for the union Unison, which represents most council staff, said it had received assurances from the authority that it would resolve any bank charges incurred by staff.