BA strike called off

News at Gatwick 18/05/2010

Questions remain over travel insurance claims : May 2010 : Sir Stelios takes on easyJet

Airway gets a reprieve from High Court

Half of the entire British Airways short haul and 30 per cent of its long haul flights may be disrupted even though a High Court injunction has blocked a strike. The cabin crew at BA who had planned to strike were thwarted by Mr Justice McCombe who upheld BA’s case against Unite, the union representing the striking workforce.

The judge ruled that the union had not correctly informed their members of four key aspects of the strike ballot after the result was confirmed in February. The four key elements were in the number of “yes” votes; the number of “no” votes; the number of spoilt ballot papers; the method in which the union had posted the results to the employees which was through crew rooms, its website and in a union newsletter.

BA was due to lose £140 million from the strike and although the chief executive Willie Walsh said he felt that the company had only been granted a “reprieve” they were delighted with the courts ruling. The airline also noted that many of their passengers would still face disruption and that many flights would have been cancelled by the time they were due to fly. BA said it hoped that the situation would improve by the end of the week.

The Transport Secretary, Philip Hammond, has urged the two sides to get back to the negotiating table “I want them to use this breathing space to resolve this dispute”. The General Secretary of the TUC, Brendan Barber, said “This and other recent decisions begin to make it look as it there is no effective right to strike in today’s Britain”.

Questions remain over travel insurance claims : May 2010 : Sir Stelios takes on easyJet

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