British Airways will learn today whether it will be granted a high court injunction to prevent the Christmas cabin crew strikes going ahead..
At a hearing in the Royal Court of Justice in London yesterday, the airline argued that the ballot held by Unite union was invalid because around 800 staff taking voluntary redundancy in November and December had been allowed to vote.
Acting for BA, Bruce Carr QC said the strike action planned for December 22 to January 2 was “wilful, disproportionate and unlawful”.
He said: “What is unlawful is Unite’s decision to include hundreds of members in the ballot when they knew they were leaving to take voluntary redundancy.
“Unite knew perfectly well 800 were volunteers (for redundancy), was it enough of them to say and do nothing about it?”
Unite will make its case this morning and a decision is expected to be made by Mrs Justice Cox in the afternoon.
BA is also holding emergency talks with the union today in a bid to avoid the walkout.