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The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain

All in the Air

by New Worker correspondent

THANKS to the efforts of the British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) workers have secured a worthwhile legal victory against blacklisting. The Court of Appeal has ruled that the practice of bargain-basement Ryanair of putting pilots who exercised their legal right to strike in 2019 on a blacklist in order to withdraw their travel benefits constituted a breach of the Blacklisting Regulations.

After BALPA called a strike among Ryanair pilots in 2019 the company threatened to revoke concessionary travel benefits for any employee who took part in the action. In a rare case of Ryanair keeping its promises the airline removed concessionary travel benefits for 12 months, effectively punishing pilots for exercising their legal right to strike.

BALPA and legal firm Farrer & Co successfully argued that Ryanair’s conduct amounted to blacklisting under UK regulations designed to protect workers from such discriminatory practices.

The judge declared that: “There can be no real dispute that the natural meaning of the phrase “activities of an independent trade union” includes organising industrial action.” BALPA’s General Secretary, Amy Leversidge declared that: “This is a huge win for BALPA and the trade union movement more generally which could not have been achieved without the bravery of the pilots involved and the wider support of the BALPA membership. Thankfully the Court’s decision will put a stop to employers making lists of striking employees in order to punish them and we hope that this judgment will make employers think twice before relying on other harmful strike-busting tactics in the aviation sector and beyond”.

True enough, but it says much about the dire state of labour law in this country that it took an expensive court case with five KCs on the pilot’s side to obtain such a ruling.

Meanwhile cabin crew working for Japan Airlines (JAL) are up in arms over their current miserable pay offer. Workers based at Heathrow Airport from where the airline flies twice daily to Tokyo rejected an offer that effectively amounts to a mere 1.5 per cent. JAL has proposed a three per cent increase on basic pay while freezing flight allowance, which constitutes about 50 per cent of earnings. Consequently, the net effect is only a 1.5 per cent increase.

With tourist traffic between Japan and the UK booming JAL is highly profitable. In the nine months to December 2024, the company earned nearly $9 billion in revenues and approximately $600 million in profits.

Unite’s general secretary Sharon Graham said “our members at Japan Airlines are rightly furious at such a pathetically low pay offer. Yet it thinks it can get away with trying to staff its planes with cabin crew on the cheap”.

Regional officer Joe McGowan warned that “despite working incredibly hard and helping the company make huge profits, Japan Airlines clearly doesn’t value its workers. Our cabin crew members will now be considering all options in response to such penny-pinching behaviour. Everything is on the table for consideration up to and including industrial action”.

At the same airport cleaners employed by OCS in British Airways offices are plan- ning strike action. While OCS is a Living Wage Foundation accredited employer it only pays BA workers the legal minimum wage as the outsourcing company only pays the higher “Living Wage” to its direct employees. BA’s parent company, IAG, made £1.7 billion during last summer’s peak while OCS made operating profits of £28.3 million in 2023.

Thus most of OCS’s BA workers only get the legal minimum wage of £11.44 an hour at Heathrow. As a result, some workers, who wear BA branded uniforms, struggle to pay their rent.

Sharon Graham said “it is rank hypocrisy for OCS to boast about being a real living wage employer when its BA staff are on poverty wages and having to use foodbanks. The Living Wage Foundation should not be allowing race-to-the-bottom outsourcers like OCS to take cover under its good name”.

Strike action will take place between the 25th and 28th February. Another re- gional officer Martin West said “there is still time to avoid industrial action but that will require OCS to put forward a fair pay offer. This dispute will continue to escalate and does reflect well on either OCS or BA – it is in both companies’ interests to resolve it”.

Just days earlier Unite won a substantial pay award for British Airways staff at both Gatwick and Heathrow airports. Cabin crew, engineers, customer relations staff and cargo handlers gained a 4.5 pay rise for one year and a year one reward payment of £1,000. For year two and three the increase is three per cent along with other reward payments of between one and four per cent.

National officer Oliver Richardson welcomed the deal saying “BA remains an iconic airline across the world and our members make every effort in often difficult circumstances to ensure that the service remains world class. This pay award rightly recognises their hard work and I’m pleased that Unite has made sure our members have greater financial certainty for the next three years.”