The British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) has won a landmark legal victory in the Court of Appeal against Ryanair, which has implications for trade unions across the UK.
The court ruled that Ryanair’s alleged move to compile a blacklist pilots who participated in a 2019 strike constituted a breach of the Blacklisting Regulations, punishing pilots for exercising their legal rights.
The case run by Farrer & Co and led by KCs including Stuart Brittenden and Bruce Carr, highlighted the unlawful nature of retaliatory actions against workers.
BALPA General Secretary, Amy Leversidge said: “This is a huge win for BALPA and the trade union movement more generally which could not have been achieved without the bravery of the pilots involved and the wider support of the BALPA membership. Thankfully the Court’s decision will put a stop to employers making lists of striking employers in order to punish them and we hope that this judgment will make employers think twice before relying on other harmful strike-busting tactics in the aviation sector and beyond. As we have said time and time again, BALPA always prefers to work in partnership with employers to avoid protracted legal battles, but this shows that we will never fail to stand with our members to protect their rights in situations such as this.”
Alice Yandle, Partner, Farrer & Co, comments: “We were very proud to support BALPA and its members in achieving such a significant legal victory in the Court of Appeal which raises points of such a fundamental importance in industrial relations law. The judgment is emphatic in its acceptance of all the arguments we advanced and has confirmed that the Blacklisting Regulations prohibit employers from compiling a list of trade union members who have gone on strike in order to discriminate against them.”
