Transport minister says he has received complaints over docked wages from workers forced to stay at home by red weather warning

Employers who try to dock the wages of workers who could not travel during last week’s red weather warning could face action, Scotland’s transport minister has said.



Public transport was suspended and people were told not to drive on Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning across the central belt, with the travel network largely paralysed until the end of the week due to heavy snow.

Heavy snow traps hundreds overnight on M80 in Scotland Read more

Humza Yousaf said he had been contacted by some people who had been threatened with a loss of pay for not making it to work.

The transport minister told BBC Sunday Politics Scotland: “Frankly I’d be 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 from individuals that they were facing disciplinary action or potential docking of wages. Now, that’s just simply not an acceptable situation when the government and police and other agencies joined together to give very crisp, very clear advice it’s not for our own good, it’s for the safety of the public.

Play Video 1:19 Red alerts announced as snow causes disruption across UK – video

“I don’t know the legal position but it will clearly be part of the debrief that we have after we pass through the yellow weather warning which is late on Monday night.

“We will be talking to employers and having that dialogue with them and of course, internally looking at what powers we have, is clearly part of the discussion we’re going to have.”

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Clearing up after the ”beast from the east” continued on Sunday with train services largely returning to normal.

Yousaf said lessons would be learned from the severe weather and particularly the gridlock on the M80 which resulted in hundreds of drivers being stuck overnight between Glasgow and Stirling as jackknifed lorries and heavy snow combined to block the road.

He said: “Clearly some sections of the trunk road network, the M80 at Castlecary, the Beattock Summit, where there are inclines where we have to look at again if we can do something differently. If people aren’t going to listen to the very 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?”