Hundreds of civil servants were unable to get to work last month because of the Arctic weather that gripped Scotland.
Finance Secretary John Swinney revealed that 731 people – 13% of the Scottish Government’s 5,687-strong core workforce – were forced to stay at home on December1 by severe weather conditions.
Some 675 people were unable to get to work on November 30, 546 on December 2, 409 on December 3, 641 on December 6, 495 on December 7 and 247 on December7.
Former transport minister Stewart Stevenson resigned from his post last month after days of criticism of his handling of the severe weather crisis, which resulted in roads across Scotland being blocked by snow and ice.
The move came after some drivers were stranded in their vehicles on the M8 between Glasgow and Edinburgh for more than 12 hours on December 6.
Business leaders said last night they had yet to compile figures on weather-related absenteeism for last month so a comparison between the public and private sectors could not be made.
David Lonsdale, assistant director of business group CBI Scotland, said many companies had put “well-developed” contingency plans in place to deal with the impact of poor weather or a mass flu outbreak. He suggested that some people in the private sector perhaps “try harder” to get to work on the basis that they would not be paid unless they turned up.
Mr Lonsdale said: “Private companies put a great deal of store in being able to service clients, so there may be a greater onus on staff to at least try to get to work or work remotely from a laptop or from another office.”
A spokesman for the Federation of Small Businesses said: “Many of our members have put in place the means of remote working and it would be interesting to see if the government has done the same.”
A spokesman for the Scottish Chambers of Commerce said: “We encourage our members to put contingency plans in place such as remote working.”
North-east Labour MSP Richard Baker said: “It is only right that the government carries out research into how the absenteeism rate among civil servants compares to days lost in the private sector.”
A spokesman for the Scottish Government said all staff were expected to make reasonable efforts to get to work, even in difficult conditions. Of the figure cited, a number worked from home and therefore undertook government business on those days,” he added.
“The remaining staff are having discussions with their line managers to resolve how these days will be accounted for.”
Meanwhile, Conservative MSP Liz Smith has raised concerns about the standard of gritting and snowplough clearance on the M90 Perth-Edinburgh route over the last few days. She said drivers had complained that the outside lanes of both carriageways had been reduced to only two-thirds of the normal width in some places, making overtaking dangerous.
A spokeswoman for Bear Scotland, which is responsible for maintaining the trunk road network, said salt was always spread across both the inside and outside lanes. She said two snowploughs worked in tandem to treat dual carriageways but snow may lie more readily in the outside lane if traffic use is lighter.