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High Court rejects British Airways injunction to stop pilot strike

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On Monday, an overwhelming majority of British Airways pilots voted in favour of industrial action in the ongoing pay dispute.

The exact terms of the industrial action had not been announced, pending a High Court ruling on an injuction British Airways filed based on potential weaknesses in the balloting processes.

The hearing began at 10.30am on Tuesday morning.  Around 4pm The Hon Mrs Justice Elisabeth Laing DBE ruled the ballot WAS legal and valid.

British Airways BA 777X 777 9X

Sky News said that:

“The airline argued in court that there were flaws in the way Balpa had organised the ballot – including over the indication of when strikes were likely to start.

Mrs Justice Elisabeth Laing ruled the union would be “more likely than not” to establish the ballots were properly issued at any full trial.”

In a statement, BALPA said:

The British Airline Pilots Association has said it is pleased it has successfully defended an application for a High Court injunction brought against it by British Airways in relation to its strike ballot of members.

Today the judge presiding over the case determined that the pilots union had issued its ballot correctly and therefore the ballot result could stand.   

BALPA General Secretary, Brian Strutton, said:

“While we’re pleased with the judge’s decision, we’re frustrated that time has been wasted. BA could have spent this time coming back to the negotiating table instead of trying – and failing – to tie us up in legal knots.

“This delay will now continue with BA seeking to appeal against the Hight Court’s decision.

“As a result it’s now likely the talks scheduled with ACAS on Friday will have to be postponed.

“We ask that BA thinks hard about why 93% of our members feel so strongly about taking strike action.

“The company itself has admitted that even one day of strike action would cost most than what our pilots are asking for, so the ball really is in their court here, to look after their pilots and ensure the hardworking public get to continue their holidays as planned.

“Although legally clear to do so, we have still not set any strike dates to give BA one last chance to commit to negotiating on pilots pay and rewards with us at ACAS later this week.”

We are now faced with another delay as British Airways appeals the decision, which is likely to take place on Friday or Monday.  Unless there are genuine grounds for this, it is likely to achieve nothing other than to cause further grievances to the pilots.  It is worth noting, however, that when Thomas Cook took similar action against BALPA in 2017 it was not allowed to appeal, so the evidence is potentially stronger this time.

Any industrial action will still require 14 days notice.  BALPA has stated that it will wait until the appeal is heard, so it seems likely to be mid August before we see anyone walking out.

PS.  Don’t forget the industrial action by Heathrow Airport staff continues, regardless of the pilot strike.  This will happen on Friday 26th / Saturday 27th July, Monday 5th / Tuesday 6th August and Friday 23rd / Saturday 24th August.

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Comments (84)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • FlyingChris says:
    23 Jul23 July 18:21

    Heathrow Staff strike this weekend – has there been any precedent to this happening in the past with these workers re: how disruptive it’s likely to be. Due to fly F this weekend on our honeymoon and have read everything from ‘nothing will change’ with contingency plans to the strikes will ‘shut down the airport’.

  • Jamie says:
    23 Jul23 July 18:32

    Good. There is a massive mandate for a strike – pilots voted by an overwhelming majority on a high turn out. BA need to negotiate with their staff to come to a fair settlement instead of playing games in the courts. I wonder how much BA are wasting in legal fees with this action?

  • Anna says:
    23 Jul23 July 18:56

    I tried to find some more information on the BBC website but it’s all about some Boris dude – maybe he can sort out the pilots’ dispute, sounds like his workplace is generally quiet over the summer…

  • Matt says:
    23 Jul23 July 19:11

    I have a reward flight booked with BA in mid August, what are my rights in regard to rebooking etc in the event my flight gets cancelled?

    • Anna says:
      23 Jul23 July 19:16

      Are you serious? If so you need to read yesterday’s thread, it’s all in there.

    • Shoestring says:
      23 Jul23 July 19:18

      you have to wait until BA tells you your flight is cancelled, then they are pretty good about re-ticketing you according to what is convenient for you

  • Adam says:
    23 Jul23 July 19:13

    The Independent are reporting:
    “Mr Strutton confirmed to The Independent that no strike will be announced before next Monday, 29 July. The union must give BA at least two weeks’ notice, so the earliest any industrial could begin is 13 August.”

    We have an outbound flight on 11th and return booked for 28th. Say, for example, the 28th is a strike day and our return flight is cancelled, would BA be cruel enough to automatically also cancel our ‘safe’ outbound flight on 11th to avoid the problem of us being stuck out there on the 28th?

    • Adam says:
      23 Jul23 July 19:16

      Just to add, I am basing this assumption on the basis that no alternative flight will be offered for a cancelled flight. Worst case scenario etc

      • Anna says:
        23 Jul23 July 19:20

        Can’t see it happening, they have no grounds to cancel these flights.”

    • Anna says:
      23 Jul23 July 19:18

      That’s good news for me, hopefully. BA are more than welcome to cancel my return flight and adopt their “Re-routing is not our policy” stance at that point.

    • Shoestring says:
      23 Jul23 July 19:20

      no, BA wouldn’t do that

      • Adam says:
        23 Jul23 July 19:22

        In that case, if what the Independent are reporting is true, I can stop stressing and refreshing this page every 2 minutes!

  • Anna says:
    23 Jul23 July 19:24

    The reason I am pessimistic about all this is BA’s track record of dealing with cancellations (mine and other people’s). Looking at the Cairo cancellations last week pax were obviously being initially fobbed off by being told that they were entitled to either a refund or re-booking on the next BA flight a week later, despite re-routing via Dubai being technically possible. It’s about time BA started getting sanctioned for pulling this stunt.

    • Shoestring says:
      23 Jul23 July 19:27

      but your ‘initially’ hides the fact that BA decided they would re-ticket anybody affected, to fly on competitor airlines without further delay, as they judged making people wait a week was unreasonable

      • Anna says:
        23 Jul23 July 19:40

        But that should have been their first response. It was only announced after Simon Calder was hauled out for comment! They should absolutely not be fobbing people off with untruths, even for a short period.

        • eli says:
          23 Jul23 July 19:47

          I find that surprising altogether. Surely if it’s a security concern, they wouldn’t want to facilitate people to fly with other carriers to an unsafe location, would they? unless it’s a specific concern to BA flights, but then who knows

          • Shoestring says:
            23 Jul23 July 19:54

            reading between the lines it was some BA cover my backside H&S audit plonker who just decided Cairo wasn’t safe enough without a bit more ‘rigour’ in its security standards – who’s ever going to say no to that up the mgt line? ie there were no intelligence reports of imminent risk coming in etc, it was just an internal assessment, presumably that the X-ray procedures weren’t good enough or something like that

          • Rob says:
            23 Jul23 July 20:22

            Coincidentally it was the day that the 787 was pulled and was due to be replaced by an A320 …

          • Anna says:
            23 Jul23 July 20:14

            BA can’t just unilaterally decide whether a destination is safe, and they still have a legal obligation to re-route regardless.

          • Shoestring says:
            23 Jul23 July 20:23

            Actually it *was* a unilateral decision by BA and the official advice from UK Govt bears this out
            Latest update:
            Summary – On 20 July 2019, British Airways announced that it was suspending its flights to Cairo for seven days. If you are due to travel with British Airways, you should contact the airline on 0844 493 0787 for further information.

            All the other Egypt destinations remain open

            All the other airlines in the world are still flying to Cairo

            I can’t see a plainer example of a unilateral decision by BA

          • RussellH says:
            23 Jul23 July 20:40

            Given the antipathy to the UK in much of the Middle East, resulting from from our former colonial activities, my first thought (FWIW) was was that this would be a BA specific threat.
            And I could be completely wrong.

          • Lady London says:
            23 Jul23 July 23:58

            They may have had a specific threat. If so they’d be unlikely to give details.

            Plus I am wondering how busy that route is, at this time of year.

          • Bagoly says:
            24 Jul24 July 08:02

            Lufthansa also cancelled their flights to (possibly more relevantly from) Cairo.
            But only for one day.

        • Anna says:
          23 Jul23 July 20:41

          You’re just being perverse now, Harry. BA’s only unilateral decision was that they weren’t going to fly to Cairo for a week. The Foreign Office makes decisions about where is safe to travel to (or not), and the industry reacts accordingly. If BA had had any evidence of a security issue, they would have been duty bound to report it through the official channels, not just suspend their own operations.

  • Anna says:
    23 Jul23 July 19:43

    If anyone needs information about re-routing from the north of England to the USA, I am now aware of most of the options!

  • Frenzie says:
    23 Jul23 July 20:20

    I hope there will be a strike when my inbound flight from my holiday would take place.

    I would love to be “stuck” on holiday actually, whilst BA footing my hotel and food bill.

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