STAFF at a Johnstone plumbing firm have been told to turn up for work despite a government a ban amid the coronavoirus crisis. 

McAlpine Pluming is still continuing "business as usual" a day after it was announced workplaces, including construction linked operations, should close with immediate effect.

Union leaders have now got involved and reported staff at the Floors Street firm are having to use public transport in order to make it to work. 

A source told The Gazette: "The management are telling staff they will not be paid if they go home. 

"This is not in keeping with the government guidlines and the staff are also having to travel on public transport." 

Another added: "Still lots in that factory today working being told they won't get paid if they don't go in.

"Some are angry as they live with older parents grandchildren some are scared as they are now the inly ones earning or losing there job." 

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a string of new measures last night as they bid to lessen the impact of Covid-19. 

They say only permissible reasons to leave home are to shop for basic necessities, to take exercise once a day, for medical reasons, to care for a vulnerable person, or to travel to essential work that cannot be done at home. 

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Ms Sturgeon said she wanted people to think of the new measures not as “guidance or advice” but as a set of rules.

“I fully expect the vast majority of people will do the right thing,” she said, but added that later this week emergency legislation will give powers of enforcement, which “will be used if necessary”.

Unite the union has now got involved and demanded workers are given clarity. 

The union say more than 700 members of staff at McAlpine's facilities across the west of Scotland are still being asked to turn up for work. 

David McGurk, Unite regional industrial officer, said: “Unite was informed this morning that McAlpine Plumbing which has multiple operations across greater Glasgow is categorising its workforce as essential which we believe to be totally incorrect.

"Around 700 workers have travelled to work with many working inches away from each other and who also having to use public transport to get into work, and thereafter to make their way home. The company’s factories often have up to 200 workers with toilet and canteen facilities being shared.

"Unite’s members are rightly concerned about their safety but they are also worried that if they go home then they will not receive their wages. So, we are demanding that the Scottish and UK governments give crystal clear advice to employers that if workers are not deemed essential then they should be sent home with immediate effect and that there should be no detrimental impact on their pay.”

The Gazette contacted McAlpine's head office but no one was available to comment.