Minister moves to look into firms docking pay in whiteout

●Yousaf says staff losing out for red warning no-shows is ‘unacceptable’

Humza Yousaf has said the Scottish Government will examine what “legal powers” it may have to act against firms that dock wages or discipline staff for missing work during the onslaught of blizzards last week.

The Scottish transport minister revealed he had already been contacted by workers who are facing the prospect of punishment for not going to work following warnings from ministers against travel.

He branded it “unacceptable” for staff to lose out in these circumstances and warned that the Scottish Government may seek to intervene.

Major firms such as Lloyds Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, Marks and Spencer, KFC and Mcdonald’s were criticised for pressurising staff to work in a survey conducted by the Scottish Trades Union Council (STUC).

With weather warnings remaining in place until tomorrow, Mr Yousaf said ministers would seek to establish the “legal position” in a briefing today.

“Talking to employers, having that dialogue with them and, in the course, internally looking at what powers we have is clearly part of the discussion we’re going to have,” he told the BBC.

“I’d be extremely, extremely disappointed if employers chose to dock wages for somebody because they couldn’t travel during the red weather warning.

“I’ve had a number of emails that have come to me from individuals and again that will be part of the debrief.”

The emails indicated staff were “facing disciplinary [action] or potential docking of wages”, Mr Yousaf said.

“That’s just simply not an acceptable situation when the government and the police and other agencies join together to give very crisp, very clear advice,” he said.

“It’s not for our own good. It’s for the safety of the travelling public.”

The survey by the STUC found 43 per cent of the more than 900 workers who responded said they were forced to travel during the worst of the snow, despite warnings issued by ministers and the police.

STUC deputy general secretary Dave Moxham said: “Complaints range from workers being forced to work during red weather warnings, being told to ignore red weather

warnings, having pay and holidays docked when unable to attend work and having care responsibilities ignored.”

Mr Moxham added: “While the liability of companies forcing employees to travel to work in such conditions has not been established by case law, we’ll be looking at what case can be made against employers who act in this manner, particularly when the police and the Met Office are advising people not to travel.

“In any case, there’s a clear moral case that employers should have a duty of care to their employees both at work and when travelling to work.”

A spokesman for Lloyds said safety of its staff was “paramount” and said all of its branches in red warning areas were shut.

A spokesman for M&S also said it took the safety of staff as an “absolute” priority and that stores closed when the red warning became known. Both Mcdonald’s and KFC said they closed restaurants on Wednesday in line with official weather warnings.

Mr Yousaf also defended himself from criticism that not enough was done to avoid hundreds of drivers being stranded overnight on the M80 between Stirling and Glasgow.

The standstill mirrored the situation faced by drivers on the same stretch of road during a previous white-out in 2010, but Mr Yousaf there was “no precedent” for last week’s conditions. He insisted there were “dozens of ploughs” on the M80, but added: “We had about 18 hours of continuous blizzard conditions – not easy for anybody to deal with.

“It is an operational matter for Police Scotland whether roads are closed or whether roads aren’t.

“I watched cameras pretty much three days straight from our control centre. There was clearly weather warnings issued around avoiding travel unless absolutely essential.”

Mr Yousaf said he saw lorries that appeared to be carrying flat-pack furniture and stationary and questioned “how anybody can justify that as essential”.

He added: “(That’s) hence why I’ve called for a meeting with the Road Haulage Association, with the Freight Transport Association.”

The transport minister acknowledged that there were stretches of motorway in Scotland where the authorities would have to “look again” at how they dealt with them during heavy snowfall, such as the M80 at Castlecary.

“If people aren’t, for example, going to listen to very crisp and clear advice and choose to travel or have no choice but to travel, then can we do something like restricting lanes, particularly just for HGVS?” he said.

“Clearly we can’t do that for 2,500km of trunk road network, but where there are pinch-points are we able to do that, how do we enforce that and what legal powers are there?”

Mr Yousaf will seek agreement with the haulage industry after the ongoing bout of cold weather on what measures can be implemented in future to make sure “lessons are learned”. He has maintained that lives were saved by the government’s response to the heaviest snowfall in Scotland’s Central Belt for 20 years.