Further legal action by Unite
The pro-BASSA lobby seem to be taking this as a positive development, but I'm not so sure myself. It rather suggests an acceptance by the Union that staff travel will not be returned either by negotiation or industrial action. It must be remembered that Unite/BASSA said that they would get staff travel back "in 5 minutes" something over three months ago, and that no resolution of the wider dispute would be acceptable without full reinstatement of the perk. Commencing legal proceedings looks like an acceptance that Unite cannot deliver on these assurances.
I somehow doubt Unite feels confident of victory. If they were confident, I think a more attractive approach to the problem (for the staff affected) would be to get one person to resign and claim constructive dismissal on the basis that removal of staff travel precluded them from getting to work which was tantamount to dismissal. They could take this to a Tribunal: cheaper and faster to hear the case. The fact they're not taking this approach suggests that they believe they will have to argue a much higher principle of law, in a higher Court, meaning much more time-consuming. As a result, I suspect those relying on staff travel will be starved out well before BA potentially loses any case. Any victory, if it really has to be litigated in this way, will be pyhrric in the extreme for the people affected.
Ava on the other thread has already mentally collected £2,000-3,000 she says she's had to spend on full fare tickets since losing staff travel on the basis of Unite's impending legal challenge. Let's assume her costs are genuine, and are replicated across the staff who commute and have lost the perk. How long can they endure such costs? What level is just too painful to continue? Intuition suggests £10k would be a very prudent average upper limit to set on this. 2,000 is also a prudent number of staff to assume are commuters and have lost the perk. That gives BA a maximum exposure of about £20 million in compensation even if they lose. Lost in the roundings in the great scheme of things, and a price worth risking if they starve out their most militant staff in the meantime. Put another way, my assumptions will have to be hopeless underestimates before BA is better off backing down on this one. Consequently, it is hard to see how today's development is in anyway positive for the staff involved.