Quite right - I think Tamalai has his facts a little wrong here. Talking about the U.K pilots only, they will have thier cases heard fro unfair dismissal and breach of contract. They were without doubt, under U.K law unfairly dismissed as it is my understanding that the sackings came "out of the blue". Under U.K law there are very few "potentially fair" reasons to terminate someones employment being redundancy - certainly not the case here, competancy, but if this were the case then a due process (which would be fairly lengthy) would need to be followed - again not applicable in this case. The only other potentially fair reason would be gross misconduct and again CX could not argue this as they did not follow any process of interviewing and giving anyone a fair hearing. Not that they did anything wrong anyway or so I understand. In short in the U.K legal system it is without doubt unfair dismissal.
What Tamalai is correct in saying is that there is responsibility on the claimant to mitigate his or her loss, or find another job to you and I. If it is obvious that this was possible but the claimant did not take this opportunity then the compensation awarded would be slashed by the court.
What the Tribunal would NOT do is expect that the 49er take a lower position with the airline that sacked him in order to mitigate his loss. Even if other people have taken the offer it is acknowledged that people are different and that while some may be able to forgive and forget others may not.
If on the other hand CX had offered the 49er the position back that he was sacked from with seniority in tact AND compensated him for all of his financial loss and the 49er refused this offer, then yes the court may suspect that the claiment is acting vexatiously.
When you apply to tribunal in the U.K you must state at the outset what you are seeking. If you are seeking reinstatement and you win your case then court can make an order to re-employ on the same terms and conditions and award compensation to the extent of the loss both financial and otherwise.
In the U.K at least CX are in for a hiding.
I also believe it is incorrect to judge whether or not any offer CX dished out was O.K or not. Having had similar happen to me I would not work for CX if they were the last employer on earth but I could understand someone who is more forgiving just wanting to put the past behind them and get on with it.
Good luck to the guys who took the job and also to the remainder of the 49ers in thier persuit of justice.