Unite wins court battle against BA

British Airways strike ban is overturned by appeal court:

The appeal court overturned a high court injunction against the strikes won by BA on Monday, hours before the first five-day strike was due to take place. The appeal was allowed by the lord chief justice, Lord Judge, and Lady Justice Smith, who rejected the original ruling that Unite had breached the 1992 Trade Union Act by taking inadequate steps to inform members of the result of a strike ballot in February. It was rejected by the master of the rolls, Lord Neuberger.

It’s good news for the Unite union, as this ruling means employers locked in battle with the union cannot get a ballot to strike declared invalid just because the members weren’t told about eleven spoiled ballots. The news confirms Palau’s hunch the original judge kicked this upstairs, making his decision on purely procedural grounds but leaving the intepretation of the law to a more senior court.

Meanwhile, does it surprise anybody that BA was trying to fix up union organisers as long ago as 2007?