Fort William hotel denies attempting to evict staff

The Onich hotel in Fort William has denied telling its staff who are living on-site to vacate the premises on Christmas Day.

Hospitality businesses in mainland Scotland will be required to close from Boxing Day for a three-week lockdown.

As a result of the temporary closure of the site, Anne-Marie Dorothy Ralston, understood to be a member of staff, posted on Facebook that staff were told to leave the live-in premises on Christmas Day.

She said: "The issue is the majority of the staff are not from the UK and this is their accommodation. They are saying that we aren't necessarily being sacked but we won't be on furlough and won't be allowed to live on-site and they do not know when they will reopen. This is diabolical to those who have nowhere to go."

However, hotel management said in a statement they were "shocked" to read the allegation.

The statement said: "We are closing the hotel for guests at midnight on the 25th (as per the guidelines) and informed the guests that they have to vacate the premises on or before that day. The on-site management briefed the staff on the above and was NOT meant for staff who are on-site. It is worth noting that we did keep foreign staff who had nowhere to go during the last lockdown in March while the hotel was closed and looked after them.

"We are committed to looking after the wellbeing of all staff and those who are in accommodation, and will continue accommodating them. This has been our position all along well before this post was published."

The 78-bedroom property is operated by Edge Hospitality.