County Hall bosses have been forced to shell out £14.5m in compension to manual workers, many of them female, such as cooks and cleaners, who have been denied equal pay for years.

And, as part of a national job evaluation, Lancashire County Council will also have to come up with a new pay structure which looks likely to cost at least another £34m once it is put in place next April.

A total of 8,248 county council staff have agreed their compensation, while 275 are at a "grievance procedure" stage with cases being prepared for employment tribunals.

Across the county, hundreds of staff have seen their wages rise – some by as much as £7,000 – but others are coming to terms with a pay cut because their jobs have been "evaluated".

It has led to a fall in morale and disquiet at some Town Halls, particularly in Preston where some staff left their desks and went home in tears after being told they faced a pay cut.

Among the worst affected are solicitors, accountants and staff in member services, while the "winners" include frontline staff such as gardeners and leisure centre workers.

Hazel Harding, leader of Lancashire County Council, said: "All of our members of staff are valued and I believe that people deserve to be paid well for public service - often picking up the part that the private sector would not touch.

"Market forces and various other things have led to inequalities in pay and it's right and proper that they are smoothed out but we will never please everybody."

Coun Ken Hudson, leader of Preston Council, said: "There's some real human misery – people who have just taken new mortgages out or just got a car on a finance scheme.

"I've sat through meetings and I could have had a weep with them."
It comes on the day a Town Hall Rich List is published by the Taxpayers Alliance, showing a number of Lancashire council bosses earning more than £100,000 a year in 2006/7.

This will come as a further kick in the teeth to the dozens of employees who have lost out to the tune of several thousand pounds due to the nationwide job evaluation.

In total, Preston Council has paid out £1.1m in pay rises and a further £1.4m in pay protection and equal pay to around 350 staff. But a further 350 were left out of pocket, some by up to £7,000.

Emma Eyre, branch secretary of Unison for Preston, said around 300 members were waiting to hear about the outcome of their appeals.

In South Ribble, pay increases have cost the council £437,000. Of the 400 Leyland-based employees, 23% had a pay rise, 13% took a pay cut and 64% have remained the same. Eighty-eight posts were appealed but these have now been resolved.

In Chorley, 124 workers shared £250,000, with the average rise being around £600 but the losers will see an average pay reduction of £1,200. A total of 74 employees appealed.

In Fylde, £200,000 was handed out in pay rises to 136 staff, while 10 workers saw their pay packet reduced. Sixty-three people are appealing.

In Wyre, the council set aside £584,000 to cover the cost of the new pay deals but a spokesman said: "We've not yet issued details of the new pay and grading structure to the trade unions. We're going to do that shortly."

A spokesman for Lancaster Council said the job evaluation process was "still on-going".

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