MORE than 2,000 Bradford Council workers will receive a pay rise after the authority confirmed it will introduce the living wage later this year.

The increase is set to come into force in the autumn, although the Council was unable to give an exact date as legal issues are still being discussed.

Council leader Councillor David Green said the wage rise would benefit people directly-employed by the authority - not contracted staff.

The authority said it employs 9,118 people, of which 2,188 (not including schools) are earning less than the living wage of £7.85 an hour.

Among the roles earning less than the living wage are, said the Council: access and information advisers, admin staff, ancillary staff, apprentices and trainees, gardening staff, care staff, caretaking/handy person, building security/portering staff, catering staff, cleaning/domestic staff, crossing operators, customer support staff, drivers, leisure staff, lunchtime supervisors, manual operatives, and SEN escorts.

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School crossing operators, who currently earn less than the living wage, are also among those set to benefit.

In recent years, the Council has struggled to recruit enough lollipop women and men and. Last November, it was forced to re-advertise 11 vacant positions that urgently needed filling across the district as part of a campaign backed by Saghir Ahmed, crossing patrol worker at Newby Primary School.

Cllr Green said: "It is still our intention to go ahead with it. There are many advantages to it. One is clearly for the individuals concerned that will have an increase in their take-home pay.

"It will also help the local economy as there will be more money being spent in the local economy. Statistics prove that money is spent locally rather than nationally or regionally.

"Another thing for the Council is that by paying the living wage or higher, productivity increases, sickness drops, and commitment to the organisation increases.

"It will improve quality of life for some employees, but also see benefit for the quality of services to the people of the district."

A spokesman for the GMB union said: "We welcome very much the move from Bradford Council.

"The concept of the living wage is excellent, as one would expect it to be. It is the amount of money that people need to earn to be able to live on. It is wrong that people are expected to work for less and then have to claim benefits to top up their income.

"We absolutely welcome the move by Bradford Council, on the back of a long and sustained campaign by the GMB on behalf of its members."

The change will cost the Labour-led authority around £1.6 million a year, said Cllr Green, who added that there would be no cuts to services to cover the increase.

He also said the authority would not be signing up to the Living Wage Charter as it was unable to commit to paying the rate forever.