A DECISION to block attempts to offer 650 county council workers a pay rise have been defended by the Conservative leadership - which claims the move is "not affordable" right now.

As your Worcester News revealed yesterday, a vote on changing the 2015/16 budget so hundreds of the lowest paid at County Hall get a rise to the Living Wage of £7.85 an hour has led to it being rejected.

The policy would have cost taxpayers £900,000 over the first 12 months, with the bill then rising year-on-year as the rate, which is calculated independently, goes up.

The refusal follows a similar stance 18 months ago, when a council report cited fears that being a Living Wage employer could open up the doors to potential legal action from school staff.

Councillor John Campion, the cabinet member for transformation change, was challenged by the Labour Party to defend the budget decision during a meeting.

Labour Councillor Graham Vickery said: "Do you intend Worcestershire County Council to become a Living Wage employer?"

Cllr Campion said: "We want to pay our staff a decent wage commensurate with the job, but it must be balanced against the level of resources we have.

"It is this administration's intention to reform our lowest pay scale, indeed it's our intention to reform them all, but the nature of the beast means we cannot do it right away.

"As adult and sensible people in this room will know, we have an aim and an aspiration but we can't sign up right now, and I suspect away from this political rhetoric we actually agree on this."

He told the chamber it was "not affordable right now" and also said Labour has made it a big issue because it "fits the election posters".

Cllr Vickery said the fact many districts have introduced it, including Wyre Forest which Cllr Campion used to lead, should give weight to the county council making the leap.

During the debate the Labour group highlighted how four of the six Worcestershire district councils either pay the Living Wage or are about to, but they employer far less staff.

From October this year, the council's six basic pay spines will reduce to five, taking out the rate £20,253 to £22,212 per year, to make it simpler and offer better rates for some staff.

But around 900 workers earn around £15,941 a year while just over 200 are on no more than £14,075 and the difference between the lowest and highest paid is one to 11.

As your Worcester News exclusively revealed in January, the debate yesterday follows changes to terms and conditions heavily based around performance-related pay for around 630 middle managers.

A 'redundancy cap' so no worker can leave with a payout from taxpayers in excess of £35,000, instead of the previous limit of £50,000, is also part of the changes for 2015/16.

Mandatory unpaid leave of three days a year has been extended to 2020.

As we revealed in our special report yesterday, the 2015/6 budget of £327 million requires savings of £23.8 million due to shrinking Government funding and huge demographic pressures.