Old Square and Devereux silks prepare for BA court battle
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John Hendy QC of Old Square Chambers is facing Bruce Carr QC of Devereux Chambers this morning as British Airways (BA) heads to court seeking an injunction to stop its workers striking over Christmas.
Hendy (pictured), who has been instructed by Thompsons Solicitors partner Neil Johnson, is representing the Unite union. He is leading Marcus Pilgerstorfer, also of Old Square.
Carr, who is leading Paul Gott of Fountain Court Chambers, has been instructed by Baker & McKenzie partner John Evason for BA.
BA has taken legal action after its cabin crew voted overwhelmingly in support of 12-day strike action beginning on 22 December.
The airline is seeking an injunction to prevent the strike going ahead, claiming there were irregularities in the strike ballot that meant staff member who had already been made redundant were allowed to vote on the action.
Cabin crew voted to strike after BA refused to suspend new contractual arrangements.
As reported on TheLawyer.com last month, Hendy was originally instructed by Unite to argue that by imposing new employment terms on its 14,000 cabin crew members BA was in breach of contract (4 November 2009).
The matter was due to be heard in the High Court in November, but was stayed until February.
On that occasion Hendy was instructed by partner Steve Cottingham at trade union firm OH Parsons & Partners. BA turned to Evason at Bakers, who instructed Devereux’s Timothy Brennan QC.
Readers' comments (6)
Anonymous | 16-Dec-2009 1:34 pm
BA cabin crew need to enter the real world. UNITE's performance has also been an absolute disgrace.
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Anonymous | 16-Dec-2009 4:36 pm
Given this is a legal publication best to avoid the Daily Mail-esque views of @1:34pm.
Howvever, with the 90%+ vote for strike action BA's legal action is bound to fail given s.232B of TULRA - "Small accidental failures unliley to affect the result are to be disregarded"
BA are either acting on dodgy legal advice, or merely window dressing in the wider dispute.
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Anonymous | 16-Dec-2009 4:37 pm
And some people should wake up to the fact that the right to strike is a last resort for workers in this country and not something taken lightly. BA management - like a lot of companies in this country right now are using recession and economic downturn as a poor excuse to shaft workers. Never crossed a picket line and never will!
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Anonymous | 16-Dec-2009 5:25 pm
I understand that, when the cabin crew voted to strike, they thought it was for a day or two and did not know it was for twelve days. I have been told that they are as mad as the rest. None of them wants to be stranded on the other side of the world for Christmas.
Would you vote to strike (if you had a union at all and could) if new terms unilaterally imposed meant taking two crew off long-haul flights and making the rest do their work. These poeple who wait on us for hours in the sky are paid a pittance..
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Tim Russell | 17-Dec-2009 2:11 pm
Does Anonymous of 5.25pm really believe BA cabin crew are paid a pittance? Maybe he is a partner at one of the Magic Circle firms in which case i suppose we are all on a pittance compared to him/her. But it is an ill informed comment. The fact is that the average BA cabin crew employee is paid around the average Uk employee and around twice the amount paid to many other airline company cabin crew. And they still have hundreds of applications for each Ba cabin crew vacancy which will no doubt include the Globespan staff now. Can anyone without a political agenda really seek to justify a strike - any strike little less a 12 day one - timed to cause maximum upset to the company and customers when the contractual changes being introduced have yet to be found to be unlawful . Could they not at least wait until after that issue is dealt with in the courts in February? And let us bear in mind the changes they are being asked to accept simply bring them into line with the industry norm and reflect cuts already made elsewhere in Ba , a loss making business trying to survive. I hope the court application is successful ( and redundant employees should not be balloted so it is not without hope ) but so should Unite and the Cabin Crew because they should now know their actions are embarassing . Poor UK plc has precious few leading companies left and one of them now under more threat as a result of their actions is British Airways.
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Anonymous | 17-Dec-2009 4:01 pm
Good news for common sense then and there will be no strike . For now. BA is still under threat of course because of this irresponsible Union and its BA cabin crew members but maybe Unite will now obtain advice from an incompetent lawyer such as the one above who posted a comment saying that BA were completely wasting their time seeking an injunction. In which case they will get the ballot process wrong again! Bet he is glad he chose to be anonymous now ! Well done BA.
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