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Thomas Cook fails to get injunction against pilot strike
Thomas Cook has failed to get a High Court injunction to stop its pilots taking strike action from tomorrow (Friday).
The judge rejected its case and ordered the travel company to pay legal costs for pilots union, Balpa.
The court also declined permission for Thomas Cook to appeal.
BALPA general secretary, Brian Strutton, said: "Balpa has always been confident in the decisive ballot result and was disappointed that Thomas Cook decided to challenge it legally rather than spending time and effort bringing an acceptable offer to the table.
"However, we robustly defended our right to strike and the judge rejected Thomas Cook’s arguments about the wording of the ballot paper."
The strike is due to take plane from 0300 to 1500 tomorrow.
"We have taken this course of action extremely reluctantly, but with no sensible pay offer on the table, we have no other option," said Strutton.
"Thomas Cook pilots have faced year-on-year, real-terms pay cuts, and cuts to terms and conditions, and our pilots have said ‘enough is enough’."
He said the action has been kept to a minimum.
"Thomas Cook have stated that all flights on September 8 will operate. We hope that this is true, as Thomas Cook’s customers are not to blame for this action, but we also believe that if Thomas Cook had spent time negotiating rather than rearranging schedules, this action may well have been unnecessary," he added.
"We remain committed to finding a solution to this dispute which will mean Thomas Cook putting forward a pay offer that their pilots can accept."
The turnout in the ballot was 88% with 91% of pilots voting to take action in a dispute over their 2017 pay negotiations.
A spokesman for Thomas Cook said: "We’re disappointed with the court’s ruling and we will continue to work with Balpa representatives to come to an agreement on their pay claim.
"Our priority is to make sure all of our customers can still fly on holiday and back home with us during the strike period and we are pleased to confirm that our flights on September 8 will operate."
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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