Court of Appeal hands down significant judgment on Blacklisting Regulations 2010
The Court of Appeal has today given judgment in the first case in which it has considered the scope of the protection provided to workers under the Blacklisting Regulations - Morais & Others v Ryanair DAC [2025] EWCA Civ 19. The background to the claim brought by a number of Ryanair pilots (all of whom were members of BALPA), is that in August 2019, BALPA called on its members employed by Ryanair, to take strike action in support of their pay claim. In response, Ryanair made a list of those who had taken such action and then used that list in order to withdraw (non-contractual) staff travel benefits which the pilots had enjoyed.
The pilots brought detriment claims under the Blacklisting Regulations on the basis that a list had been prepared and used by Ryanair in order to take away their staff travel. Ryanair resisted the claims on the basis that "activities of trade unions" which defined the scope of protection under the Regulations, did not include participation in strike action and that, even if it did, it would only apply to action that was lawfully balloted under Part V Trade Union & Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 ("TULRCA") - in other words, it applied only where BALPA was immune from action under section 219.
The Court of Appeal disagreed on both points - "activities of trade unions" did cover participation in strike action - were it otherwise, Parliament would have singularly failed, to address the problem which had been identified as requiring the Regulations to be introduced, and employers would be left free to make lists of strikers with a view to disadvantaging them in their current or future employment. In addition, the balloting regime for trade unions under Part V TULRCA did not impose any sort of pre-condition for protection under the Blacklisting Regulations.
The Court also concluded that, even if this were the case, it would be an abuse of process for Ryanair to seek to argue this point in the Employment Tribunal as a defence to the pilots' claims in circumstances where it had previously tried and failed to obtain an injunction in the High Court, based on alleged breaches of Part V TULRCA by BALPA, to prevent the strike from taking place at all.
Bruce Carr KC, (together with Stuart Brittenden KC) appeared for the BALPA members, instructed by Alice Yandle and Caitlin Farrar of Farrer & Co LLP.
A copy of the judgement can be found here.
Further analysis of the decision can be read here.
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