It stemmed from a new and far reaching interpretation around the balloting procedure; the union is required to provide British Airways a list of every single person it intends to ballot for action and then later, a further list of those who would take part in any subsequent action.
This task is always difficult, as many people don’t keep their details, address etcetera up to date on our records, and any discrepancy, believe it or not, is potential grounds for a challenge. However, this particular ballot was made even more difficult due to the fact that approximately 800 people were taking severance during the actual ballot. The union had no way of knowing who these people were and when/if they had decided to accept their offers and leave.
I liked this one from Lala lady. Especially as it was apparent both from the BASSA forum, this forum and the CF forum that the vast majority of crew who were taking VR and also receiving a ballot paper were actively encouraged to vote in favour.
Apparently there was no defence whatsoever when the BASSA QC was questioned as to whether reasonable measures had been taken to ensure that those accepting VR packages or those who had left or leaving the Union were informed they were not eligible to vote.
Injunction granted.
Oddly enough many of us 'ranting' pilots warned of this discrepancy almost a day after the initial ballot issue.
But then what do we know in the face of the BASSA mantra machine.