By Charlotte Branson, BALPA Media Officer Back in the day, training was free – and mostly only for men. But was it any better? THE LEGAL VIEWPOINT Two airlines, Ryanair and British Airways, tried to injunct strike action. Both failed at the courts. Lawyer Stuart Brittenden, who worked with BALPA in both instances – as well as the previous case mounted by Thomas Cook in 2017 – was a guest speaker at our ADC. He spoke about how we won both cases, as well as the legal issues surrounding industrial action in general. One of the main points Stuart made is that industrial action takes time – at least three months, and possibly longer, depending upon what stance the employer takes. BALPA’s preference is to conduct an indicative ballot – something we’re not legally required to do, but believe is good practice. Once the result of the indicative ballot is known, time has to be allowed for BALPA and the company to reach an agreement – a month or more may have already passed before we move to an official ballot for action. We must give the employer seven days’ notice of a ballot, allow members time to vote by post and, if the vote comes back in favour of industrial action, we must provide at least 14 days’ notice to the airline of any action. A company may then try to block strike action by asking for an injunction from the courts. However, in order to prevent this, Stuart says that preparation, preparation, preparation is needed – and from a very early stage. In all of BALPA’s wins, he praised the BALPA legal, industrial and membership teams for their help in this regard. Before a ballot can be sent to members, there is an incredible amount of work to be done to ensure that as and when that ballot is taken to court, it can stand up to legal scrutiny. The membership data has to be thoroughly checked to make sure all those entitled to vote get the chance, but also because if a ballot paper is issued to members who aren’t entitled (because they are set to retire before the ballot closes, for example), this could be seen as BALPA potentially looking to induce these members to strike if such action is taken. This is something an airline’s lawyers would very quickly use against us. We also need to submit this data to the airline so they know how many pilots, of what rank and from which bases, may be called for strike action. Communication is key The Company Council and its National Officer, as well as attending countless negotiation meetings, must keep members up to date on the latest events through a variety of communications, all of which need to be legally checked. It is frustrating, and can mean that, sometimes, communications can seem slow to members, but any wrong step could undermine the whole issue. Care has to be taken to ensure that any communication consistently describes the issues forming the trade dispute as set out in the ballot paper, and also to ensure that nothing could be construed as amounting to an inducement to pilots to breach their contracts of employment. Stuart used an example from a case against the train drivers’ union, ASLEF, brought to the courts because of a seemingly innocuous text sent to members. The court ruled against ASLEF and, as a result, the union can never ballot members on the particular issued raised in the text because this amounted to a prior call for action before the ballot. So the stakes are very high. Ensuring that all bases are covered, as well as drafting in expert legal help from people such as Stuart, has meant that BALPA is the most successful union in recent history at blocking threats of injunction from employers. And whatever future challenges come our way, we will continue to prepare, prepare, prepare, so we can continue to hold your employers to account. INDUSTRIAL