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On Monday once again British Airways succeeded to secure an injunction to prevent 20 days strike by cabin crew union “UNITE”. This the second time BA has won legal battle over UNITE during this prolonged dispute between both parties. An interim injunction was granted by the High Court on the basis that Unite, the union that represents cabin crew, after a ballot in February failed to take necessary steps to inform voters of the breakdown of results, including the number of spoiled ballot papers.
BA won an injunction to prevent a 12-day strike by cabin crew that would have cost the airline GBP300 million in December. After it argued that the union had balloted staff that weren’t entitled to vote because they would have left the carrier at the time strikes were due to take place.
The current decision means that a series of strikes due to begin this week won’t be allowed to go ahead unless the ruling is overturned. The planned industrial action would have caused disruption in the run-up to the half-term school holiday period in the UK and soccer’s World Cup flights to South Africa.
Trades Union Congress General Secretary Brendan Barber said in a statement,
"This is a desperately worrying judgment, A strike that clearly has majority support has been turned over on a tiny technicality," he added. "This and other recent decisions begin to make it look as if there is no effective right to strike in today’s Britain."
British Airways in a statement here on Monday said
it was delighted that "extreme and unjustified strike action cannot go ahead" and it hoped to restore a full flight schedule by the weekend. We hope all sections of Unite, including the leaders of the cabin crew branch, will take this opportunity to pause and focus on achieving the early and peaceful end to this dispute which the travelling public and all our employees want," the airline said.
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