LOW-PAID staff are celebrating after being awarded pay-outs from a council.

The 139, mainly female, workers will receive thousands of pounds each after an employment tribunal in Newcastle ruled they had been underpaid.

Judgements on a further 200 workers of Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council - including home carers and dinner ladies - have still to be made.

Tax-payers in the East Cleveland area now face a £1m bill to pay the workers after Newcastle solicitors Stefan Cross successfully contested the authority's equal pay deal. Stefan Cross lawyers said the final bill for the council could be nearly £2m.

One worker, who did not wish to named and who lives in Redcar, was overjoyed. She said: "I will get more than £8,000 - more than double I would have got in the original council deal."

In a statement, the council said more than half the women would receive a one-off lump sum payment of less than £5,000 and two-thirds would receive less than £10,000.

Colin Moore, the council's chief executive, criticised the solicitor Stefan Cross who will be paid about £275,000 from the deal.

Mr Moore, who received a 32.5 per cent pay increase last year to take his pay to £110,000 a year, said the council would have to borrow the money to pay the bill.