Now That's Interesting.

Today the Court of Appeal has overturned an injunction brought by British Airways against Unite the Union to prevent them taking strike action. Although I haven't had the opportunity to read the verdict in full the point of law in question was Section 231 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 which states;

"As soon as is reasonably practicable after the holding of the ballot, the trade union shall take such steps as are reasonably necessary to ensure that all persons entitled to vote in the ballot are informed of the number of—

(a) votes cast in the ballot,

(b) individuals answering “Yes” to the question, or as the case may be, to each question,

(c) individuals answering “No” to the question, or, as the case may be, to each question, and

(d) spoiled voting papers."

Unite failed to inform their members of eleven spoilt ballots in the strike ballot that was passed by an 81% majority. Therefore the injunction was lawfully granted. What appears to have happened now is that the Appeal Court have ruled that section 231(d) isn't relevant to the case and overturned the injunction. I have no idea how they've been able to do that but it appears that once again a British Court has returned a verdict that has little or no basis in law.

Whether or not BA will now appeal the appeal or if the strike will go ahead is still to be decided. However I think Unite should spend a bit of time finding out who in their organisation keeps screwing up the strike ballots.