British airline pilots body win landmark appeal against Ryanair
The British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) has achieved a win in the Court of Appeal today over illegal blacklisting practices at Ryanair.
Members of the BALPA called a strike in 2019, among those were Ryanair pilots, but in response, Ryanair threatened to revoke concessionary travel benefits for employees who participated in the action.
The airline went on to remove these benefits for 12 months.
Over this action, with BALPA’s backing, the affected pilots enlisted law firm Farrer & Co to file legal action to the Employment Tribunal over Ryanair’s conduct for blacklisting workers.
In January 2020 captain Morais and his colleagues issued the claim in the Tribunal, alleging that the withdrawal of travel benefits constituted a detriment.
The pilots won at the Employment Tribunal, but Ryanair appealed to the Employment Appeal Tribunal, where its case was dismissed in 2021.
The case was then taken to the Court of Appeal, which on Friday, handed down its judgment, where the judges simultaneously agreed to dismiss Ryanair’s appeal.
Commenting on the results, Alice Yandle, Partner, Farrer & Co said: “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,” she added.
BALPA General Secretary, Amy Leversidge added, “thankfully the Court’s decision will put a stop to employers making lists of striking employees 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.”
While a spokesperson for Ryanair said: “Ryanair has instructed our lawyers to immediately appeal this ruling. Ryanair, 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.”
“Staff travel benefits are discretionary and no employer can or should be forced to provide them to people who fail to show up for work,” they added.