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2
June 2008
Following the Viking and
Laval judgments from the European Court of Justice we now
have the decision in Rüffert and once again human rights
and fundamental freedoms for workers have lost out to business
rights in the EU. Perhaps “Justice” should finally
be removed from the title of the Court.
Meanwhile, in the High
Court in London, the Balpa withdrew their case on the third
day of a hearing that started on 18 May 2008.
The background was the
British Airline Pilots’ objection to British Airways
plan to set up OpenSkies – a new airline subsidiary that
will fly from European cities to the US, using a pilot workforce
separate from its mainline operations and that the union thought
could act as a “Trojan horse” to drive down conditions
throughout the airline.
An overwhelming majority
of BA’s 3,200 pilots voted in favour of a strike over
BA’s plans. But BA say that even if the strike is lawful
under UK law having surmounted all the hurdles, the union
can still be stopped or sued successfully for every penny
in lost business, because – on the back of the ECJ cases
- the strike would breach the EU’s right to business
to provide services where it wants under article 43 or 49.
The union felt obliged
to apply to check with the court that its action is lawful
under EU law and ask the Judge to say if he thinks it is “proportionate”.
Now they have decided
the prospect of a long drawn out case and series of appeals
might be too costly and the result may still put them in the
position where they have no protection from being sued for
BA’s losses in the event of a strike.
The union have confirmed
they will not now go ahead with the intention to take legal
action, because they cannot afford the consequences of the
courts finding against them. Anyone who might have doubted
the impact of the Laval case, when it came out in December,
should have no illusions now.
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