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BA litigation drama begins

Published on 3 Feb 2010 under category: legal

Cabin crew staff at British Airways (BA) began legal action against their employer today for reducing employee numbers on long haul flights before Christmas.

BA was accused of acting illegally by cutting the number of cabin crew from 15 to 14 on its worldwide and Eurofleet flights.

John Hendy, QC, who opened the five-day case, said the court would see ten cabin crew test cases that both sides agreed were representative of the 5,400 claimants.

He argued that the goal was not 'collective enforcement': "These are individual employees, each of whom seeks the enforcement of his or her individual terms, and the relevant terms are the number of crew he or she has to work with on any particular flight."

The airline has said that it was within its rights to act unilaterally as it does not believe the smaller number of staff would entail any safety or security risks.

It also described the union Unite's call for an injunction to reverse the changes, a potential "commercial catastrophe".

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