Ananova:

More than one in five people have taken the day off work because of the snow, a snapshot survey has suggested.

A survey of more than 300 employers found of those who attempted to get to the office, four out of five were late arriving because of the travel chaos caused by the extreme weather.

And one in four bosses said they allowed staff who made it into the office to leave early, according to the study by employment law firm Peninsula.

The Rail Maritime and Transport union said the havoc caused to Britain's transport system underlined the "failings" of a fragmented rail network and the "folly" of cuts in the number of front-line staff.

General secretary Bob Crow said: "The snowstorms sweeping Britain have highlighted the importance of having enough front-line staff and how the ability to plan for weather emergencies has been undermined by the fragmentation of rail network.

"In decades past, without the benefit of modern forecasting methods, a publicly owned and unified railway network deploying sufficient front-line staff was better able to mitigate some of the worst effects of winter weather.

"The efforts of rail staff today have been massive, but with the network fragmented and in the hands of private interests that put profit ahead of service, the response has been erratic - and with fewer front-line staff the weather has gained the upper hand sooner than it should have.

"Staffing levels are already pared to the bone, yet today we are fighting plans by train-operating companies to remove even more front-line workers. The time has come to restore railway staffing to sensible levels, and if the private operators' shareholders don't like it they can simply hand back the keys."

The Federation of Small Businesses said the cost of the bad weather to the UK economy was £1.2 billion, based on an estimation that a fifth of the workforce had been unable to make it in to work.

It warned that contracts would be stalled, cheques not banked, and purchases of items such as sandwiches, confectionery and other goods and products would suffer as a result of people staying at home.