SCOTLAND’S unions have attacked Boris Johnson for setting a poor example by undertaking a whistlestop tour of Scotland during a lockdown, and insist that loose definitions of essential work and travel is spreading the virus.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon raised her doubts about the visit last week when she called Johnson out.

She said: “I think people like me and Boris Johnson have to be in work for reasons that I think most people understand but we don’t have to travel across the UK as part of that. Is that really essential right now, because we have a duty to lead by example?”

And Dave Moxham, deputy general secretary of the STUC, has echoed that sentiment insisting that Johnson has failed in his duty.

“It’s quite clear that he could have achieved what he wanted to achieve with the people of Scotland by doing so remotely,” he said.

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The STUC says that it has been a struggle for its members to adhere to the stay-at-home rules and they will feel let down by the UK Prime Minister. Moxham added: “The messaging has been unclear and not at all definitive.

“We know that there has been a range of workers in construction, in manufacturing, in call centres whose work would not have been defined as essential during the first lockdown but who are permitted under the current guidelines, or expected to attend their work.”

The Scottish Government defines as key workers those “workers in the private, public or third sector without whom there could be a significant impact on Scotland, but where the response to coronavirus, or the ability to perform essential tasks to keep the country running, would not be severely compromised.’’

The STUC argues that this broad brush strategy has created a window for employers and workers themselves to apply this definition to themselves and to then travel to work rather than stay at home.

Moxham said: “I think it’s harder for us to gain compliance because they’re seeing more people out and about and they’re able to possibly find additional excuses to travel than occurred in the first lockdown.

“And you know you’ve got people who are being told by their work that they are essential when they’re not essential, or they are perhaps trying to present themselves as key workers so they can get child care.

“We genuinely believe that this is contributing to less adherence this time around and frankly may be one of the reasons why, although we could be turning the corner in infection rate, it is taking a little longer than some people expected.”

The STUC is sympathetic to the extra pressures that this is placing on the police to enforce the laws regarding essential travel.

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Moxham said: “Everybody just needs to use their eyes and see that we have significantly more traffic and significantly more activity than in the first lockdown.

“We’re getting multiple reports of people working from offices and call centres, we have tradespeople and people working in indoor construction and we’re even getting reports of restaurants and other organisations changing their descriptions to manufacturers in order to evade the regulations.

“Most employers are doing the right thing but there is definitely a proportion out there who are playing fast and loose.

“And they are going to play faster and looser the more they feel able to point to senior figures in government, confusing guidance or anything really that allows them to just stretch the envelope.

“And that’s what you’re going to have with the types of bad example that the Prime Minister has given.

“We know that the final line is the police and the more they get stretched by people not observing the rules the more difficult it is for all of us.”