British Airways lost Cost of Appeal bid to block pilots from strike action

Thursday, August 1, 2019

British Airways passengers will be facing misery during the peak holiday season after the striking pilots rejected a pay increase of up to £20,000.

The Court of Appeal rejected BA’s application for injunction to stop them that would lead to about 4,000 striking in mid-August.

The above-inflation pay deal worth 11.5 per cent over three years has been rejected by the British Airline Pilots’ Association (Balpa) . Union representing other BA staff however accepted it. The pilots are holding out for a bigger share of BA’s profits which made £2 billion last year.

A British Airways spokesperson was disappointed that the pilots’ union, Balpa has chosen to threaten the holidays of thousands of customers this summer with unprecedented strike action.

They were sorry for the disruption Balpa’s strike action would cause to their customers.

The pilots’ union boss stated that no strike will be called immediately and talks with British Airways at the offices of the conciliation service, Acas will resume at 3 pm.

It was noted that 4,000 pilots working for the British Airways and belonging to Balpa voted to strike . Around 500 of the airline’s 4,500 pilots belong to Balpa.

93% were in favour of industrial action in a dispute over pay as nine out of 10 union members voted.

There was a strong mandate for stoppage by the union and British Airways tried to get an injunction against a strike in high Court. This was on the basis that there were flaws in the balloting process.

Mrs Justice Elisabeth Laing said the ballot and the publication of the result had been carried out legally last week in the High Court and British Airways  appealed, arguing that the judge it had reached the wrong conclusion.

The legal disputes focused on the word ‘categories’ and whether Balpa should have broken down the vote into long-and short-haul fleets and the proportion of pilots at Gatwick and Heathrow voting to strike.

The judges rejected the appeal stating that an employer would almost always complain that they would like more detail on the breakdown of a strike ballot.

Within two weeks’ notice Balpa is free to call a strike and Brain Strutton, general secretary of Balpa stated that we want to resolve this through negotiation, so instated they asked BA to re-engage at Acas talks which will happen with renewed vigour.

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