The British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) has claimed a court ruling over the blacklisting of Ryanair pilots who went on strike \u201csets a powerful precedent for the entire trade union movement\u201d.<\/p>\n
The union challenged Europe\u2019s largest airline\u2019s policy of withdrawing travel benefits from pilots who went in strike in 2019 in the UK’s Court of Appeal.<\/p>\n
The court ruling concluded that the move constituted a breach of the Blacklisting Regulations. However, Ryanair said it will be appealing the decision of the court claiming travel benefits are discretionary.<\/p>\n
BALPA said the decision \u201cunderscores that\u00a0such\u00a0retaliatory actions against workers who take part in lawful industrial action are both unacceptable and unlawful\u201d.<\/p>\n
The case related to a strike among Ryanair pilots in 2019 following which the low cost carrier removed benefits for 12 months.<\/p>\n
BALPA said this \u201ceffectively punished pilots for exercising their legal right to strike\u201d. It was argued that Ryanair\u2019s conduct amounted to blacklisting under UK regulations designed to protect workers from such discriminatory practices.<\/p>\n
The union said: \u201cThis case reinforces\u00a0the principle that\u00a0workers\u2019 rights to organise and engage in lawful strikes\u00a0are sacrosanct\u00a0and its significance was recognised by the Secretary of State of Business and Trade who intervened in the case.<\/p>\n
\u201cBALPA\u2019s victory highlights the critical role trade unions play in defending these rights and ensuring employers are held accountable for any breaches.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amy Leversidge, general secretary of BALPA, said: \u201cThis 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThankfully the Court\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement Ryanair said: \u201cRyanair has instructed our lawyers to immediately appeal this ruling.<\/p>\n
\u201cRyanair, not unreasonably, removed discretionary staff travel benefits for 12 months from a small number of pilots who failed to report for their rostered duties in 2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cStaff travel benefits are discretionary and no employer can or should be forced to provide them to people who fail to show up for work.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Alice Yandle, partner at law firm Farrer & Co, which represented the pilots added: \u201cWe 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.<\/p>\n \u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) has claimed a court ruling over the blacklisting of Ryanair pilots who went on strike \u201csets a powerful precedent…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":157834,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,1131,35,266,41],"tags":[4398,4000,657,3997],"class_list":["post-180962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-airlines-airports","category-industry-news","category-low-cost","category-latest-news-low-cost","category-training-low-cost-regional","tag-balpa-trade-union","tag-community-news","tag-ryanair","tag-union"],"yoast_head":"\n