LEGAL Industrial advice, representation and legal assistance By John Stembridge-King, Employee Relations/HR Consultant When things go wrong in the workplace, your Company Councils and their trained reps provide help, support and advice. Advice for the trained reps is available from BALPAs full-time trade union officials, known as national officers, and if a case escalates, it is usually the fulltime officer who handles an appeal. As necessary, BALPAs full-time officials may seek legal advice in support of a case. On top of this, the local reps help with managing operating performance matters, as well as other welfare issues. After exhausting the internal process, if an employment matter needs to progress legally to a tribunal or a court hearing, the case is passed to the legal services sub-committee (LSSC), which is a panel made up of pilot representatives of BALPA. Applications for legal assistance in employment-related matters are referred to a specialist employment lawyer for a merits assessment; BALPA covers the cost of this and, if there are good prospects of success that is, more than a 50% chance of winning all further associated costs are covered, related to taking the case to conclusion. High-cost cases, with the potential to spend more than 80k, are referred to the National Executive Council (NEC) comprising 14 elected pilots to gain financial authority to comply with BALPAs good governance code. The BALPA rulebook is clear about the provision of this expensive commodity: The extent of the legal assistance granted, and the means by which it is provided shall be at the absolute discretion of the NEC, but no legal assistance will be provided in respect of matters or events arising or known to the member prior to his membership of BALPA. Some pilots do try to join BALPA for the convenience of this first-class support when an incident has already snowballed. However, the legal assistance scheme is in place for those members who joined BALPA for all the right reasons in advance of an employment issue coming to the fore, namely for collective representation to improve terms and conditions over time and the progression of BALPAs aims and objectives as a professional body as set out in the rulebook. Some examples The lawyers used are independent of BALPA. The legal advice is provided to the LSSC and relayed to the member via their BALPA full-time officer. There is a plethora of employment-related issues that comes to the LSSC for consideration. Some examples are unfair dismissal, redundancy, loss of licence, contract issues and pensions, PHI cases, flexible working, bonds, merger issues, road traffic accidents linked to reporting for duty or while down-route, TUPE transfers, medical negligence, organophosphates, discrimination, and holiday pay. And it is not all employment- and contract-related issues. BALPAs lawyers have supported members with personal injury claims too, which can take several years to come to fruition. There have been some notable successes recently in this latter category. For example, an easyJet pilot who suffered hearing loss through working with a faulty company-supplied, non-ANR headset achieved significant compensation at judicial mediation. This pilot said: It has taken quite a considerable amount of time to process the claim that was settled. It was way beyond anything we could have hoped for and exceeded BALPAs lawyers expectations as well. We really cant thank BALPA enough for the support it has given us throughout the process from incident to closure. It has been a pretty tough time, to be honest, and we were still on a financial trajectory to probably losing the house and all that we had worked for. Without the full backing of BALPA and the support it gives its members the outcome could have been very different. Please pass on my heartfelt thanks to all who have been involved with my case throughout its journey. Hopefully there is enough experience from handling my case for BALPA to be able to use for other similar incidents. Examination licences for Air Trafc Controllers (ATCO s). Weekly House, Padbury Oaks 583 Bath Road, Longford, UB7 OEH our own car-parking facilities. www.heathrowmedical.com Medicals to meet EASA and CAA requirements as well as Initial, Renewal & Revalidation European Class 3 Medical Personal service with a quick turnaround for Initial, Excellent availability of appointments. Adjacent to Heathrow Airport, we have the standards of the major International civil aviation authorities including CASA, Canada, and GACA. Renewal & Revalidation Class 1 and Class 2 applications. Also, a long-standing case was settled recently relating to a former Thomas Cook pilot who fell down an open ventilation shaft in the grounds of his down-route hotel in Jamaica. He suffered serious, life-threatening injuries, requiring him to be placed in a coma to aid his recovery. BALPA assisted him with a personal injury claim against the hotel, which eventually went to judicial mediation and settled for a significant amount of compensation. After the mediation hearing he said: An excellent outcome to a long and protracted case. I thank BALPA for all the help and assistance since 2016 in resolving this to a successful conclusion. Im sure most of the membership do not realise what hard work you and your team put into these matters and the long time it takes to conclude. To demonstrate the breadth of legal support provided, a BALPAappointed lawyer stepped in to support a helicopter paramedic at a Health and Care Professionals Council Tribunal to defend the reputation of this hard-working member of the search and rescue community. After the successful outcome of the tribunal, the member said: The offer of BALPAs legal assistance was immediate and, although no-one could have known at the time how long that assistance would be required, it didnt falter once. In fact, the case went to hearing on 5th July last year, over five years after the event. I am glad to say that the panel presiding over my case found that my practice was not impaired and that no statutory restrictions would need to be placed on it. I left the HCPCs building on 18th July with the case dismissed and able to return to full paramedic practice, an outcome that was in no small part down to the excellent service provided to me by BALPA. Over those many years, I received the very best advice throughout from both BALPAs legal department and the external legal professionals who they employed for their professional council. And throughout the seven days of the actual hearing, I was flanked on one side by an exceptionally accomplished barrister and on the other by a senior BALPA representative. I was, and remain, extremely grateful for all the help I have been given honestly and without hesitation. Though now retired, I have maintained my BALPA membership and consider it comforting to know that when help and support is needed, BALPA is ready, willing and able to offer its valuable services to its membership. Criteria BALPAs criteria for granting legal assistance can be found under Rule 35 of the BALPA Rule Book: The applicant must be a full member in good standing with three months continuous membership; the need for assistance must arise from the applicants work as a commercial pilot/helicopter rear crew; and for employment-related matters the Associations lawyers must advise that the prospects of success are better than 50% as indicated above. One of the fundamental differences between BALPA and an insurance policy is that the LSSC has the discretion to act on a case that may not meet the normal more than 50% threshold if there is an industrial imperative to do so or where there is an issue where the point of law has not been settled; or when there is an issue that may affect the others in the profession; or, indeed, whenever the LSSC /NEC consider it appropriate, BALPA has the discretion to offer legal support. Additionally, we do not apply the 50% rule to any criminal support, for example coroners courts, fatal accident inquiries and the crown court, because the LSSC does not consider itself a pre-jury jury. Criminal cases are assessed on a case-by-case basis and the level of support, beyond initial representation at interviews held under caution, must have NEC approval. We have provided legal representation for pilots involved in interviews under caution in relation to violation of CAA regulations, too. And, of course, any decision taken by the LSSC can be appealed against to the NEC. When involved in an accident or incident while on duty overseas, BALPA will always provide legal representation for a member and arrange for local legal advice to be provided as required. We have reciprocal arrangements with other pilot organisations through the International Federation of Air Line Pilots Associations (IFALPA) and International Transport Federation networks, as well as our solicitors own international connections. All of the above are covered by your monthly membership subscription fee, providing a first-class benefit befitting the professional status of pilots and helicopter rear crew members. Email: medicals@heathrowmedical.com Tel: 020 8528 2633