COUNCILLORS are to review a decision that would see almost a quarter of council workers having their salaries cut.

Some workers at Blackburn with Darwen Council are facing a drop of as much as £10,000 in their annual pay packet under the 'pay and reward' scheme.

Opposition councillors have now 'called in' the decision, which was passed by the ruling executive board without them having the chance to debate the plan.

Ten councillors signed an official document calling for the review on the grounds that there had been insufficient information collected on the impact on individuals and on services.

The Government has told every council in the country to set up a single pay scale to end years of inequalities between staff.

It is up to each authority to set their own "scale", the benchmark against which each salary is set. Councils also had to compensate staff who were underpaid under the old system.

Under the "equal pay settlement", 5,500 jobs were evaluated by the council - 24 per cent of salaries will go down, 46 per cent are set to increase and the remaining 30 per cent will stay the same.

But opposition councillors said they were shocked by how much money some workers stand to lose.

Labour was in control of the council when the review was launched, before losing out to the coalition made up of Conservatives Liberal Democrats and For Darwen Party.

Coun Kate Hollern, Labour leader, said: "Our original understanding was that it would stabilise wages and make it a fairer system but the information we have been getting is that people at the lower end have been losing out, and that was never our intention.

"To tell people a week before Christmas that they are going to lose 30 per cent of their wage is just not acceptable."

Council leader Coun Colin Rigby said the new structure had reduced the pay gap between men and women.

The decision will now be debated by a council committee on January 3. The original decision will either be accepted, sent back to the executive board or referred to the full council for a decision depending on a vote by councillors.

It is likely that the coalition would win any vote, but it is on a knife-edge as the group only holds a two-seat lead over Labour.