
Nationwide food supplier Bidfood has been accused of sending lorry drivers out on to the roads during Storm Eowyn despite “danger to life” weather warnings.
Staff claim the company chose to continue deliveries during the storm, where winds of up to 100mph left lorries on their sides across the country.
All schools, buses, trains and ferries were cancelled and the Met Office said that Eowyn was “probably the strongest storm” to hit the UK in at least 10 years.
Calum Carmichael, 19, died after his car was struck by a falling tree in East Ayrshire during powerful winds. He had been driving before the red weather warning took effect.
Yet thousands of non-essential staff in the private sector were forced to head to work or lose their day’s pay despite the “serious threat to life” warning issued by the Scottish Government.
‘Normal working day’
Bidfood, one of the UK’s largest food distributors, has a huge client range including schools, prisons, the Army, Subway, Five Guys and many others.
It has a fleet of 90 lorries in Scotland delivering food from depots in Edinburgh, Larbert, Oban and Inverness.
The firm is estimated to have around 400 workers in Scotland and trade union GMB said its reps reported that drivers were being told it was “a normal working day” despite the red warning.
Members working for Bidfood in Scotland were contacted by the union to outline their legal protection if the company told them to carry out unsafe work.
Nadine Houghton, GMB national officer, told workers: “Bidfood should not be putting their drivers in this position but equally you have a right to say no if it’s not safe. Please look after yourselves and each other.”
GMB warned the decision to keep lorries on the road would be ignoring police advice – which was to “avoid unnecessary travel”.
Louise Gilmour, GMB Scotland secretary, said far too many staff were encouraged to report for work during Storm Eowyn.
She warned global warming meant extreme weather is becoming more common and called on firms to work with unions to agree strategies to protect workers.
Gilmour said: “The recent storms were no surprise and had been trailed extensively for days, yet we responded to many calls from many members across many sectors saying they had been told to work as normal or with minimal acknowledgement of the conditions.
“Companies refusing to make any effective contingency plans to deal with storms like this one not only failed those workers but, in many occasions, put their lives at risk. That is unacceptable, illegal and cannot stand.
“Workers need to know they do not have to work in dangerous conditions and companies need to know they should not ask them.
“Formal plans must be discussed and agreed to ensure employers respond safely to extreme weather warnings.”
Transport Scotland said that there were 11 incidents involving overturned lorries on the M8, M9 and A1.
Bidfood said: “We take the health and safety of our drivers extremely seriously, continually assessing weather and safety risks across all our depots in Scotland and the UK. Due to the impact of Storm Eowyn last weekend, where there were red zones in place, we made the difficult decision to delay or cancel deliveries, including all deliveries across west Scotland coastal areas.
“We also advised all of our drivers operating from our Scottish depots that if they did encounter poor weather conditions that they felt were unsafe, they should return to the depot.
“We did not force drivers to make deliveries in red zones or in any circumstances where they felt it was unsafe to do so.
“We work extremely hard to ensure that deliveries to customers, particularly those who have a duty of care to look after vulnerable people, are fulfilled, but only where it is safe to do so.”
Storm Eowyn’s impact
The storm caused widespread damage, with roads being blocked by fallen trees and outages that left 168,000 homes without power.
A gust of 100mph was recorded in Drumalbin, South Lanarkshire.
In Islay, a gust of 91mph was recorded around 2pm, with 90mph recorded in North Lanarkshire.
Network Rail said the Scottish network had sustained “very significant damage” with 400 separate incidents, including multiple trees on tracks, damaged overhead wires, power supply failures, and other objects on the line.
The financial cost of the storm is still relatively unknown, but Storm Arwen previously ran up a £300 million tab in 2021, with damage concentrated mainly in rural spots in the east of Scotland and England.
But Eowyn tore through the central belt – including Glasgow and Edinburgh – so insiders believe a final total approaching £500m is not unrealistic.

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