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Adams v British Airways plc [1996] IRLR 574 Court: CA Case History
Cases referring to this case
The plaintiffs were employed as pilots by an airline company. Their contracts of employment incorporated a collective agreement between the company and the trade union under which pilot seniority was determined by the date of a pilot's entry as a new entrant with the company, new entrants joining at the bottom of the seniority list. When the company merged with another airline, the pilots from that airline were added to the seniority list on the basis of the seniority they enjoyed at their previous airline. The plaintiffs successfully sought damages for breach of contract. On the company's appeal, held, a collective agreement had to be construed to give a fair meaning to the words used in the factual context, known to the parties, which gave rise to the agreement. At the date of the agreement, the company could not be credited with foreknowledge of specific problems, including the effect of putting the other airline's most senior pilots, who had experience of aircraft not operated by the company's pilots, in a lower position than the most newly-recruited direct entry pilot. The company knew of the difficulties which could arise in relation to pilot seniority and it would therefore be suprising if it had intended to bind itself so as to be obliged to choose between accepting foreseeably absurd consequences and giving its pilots a right of veto redeemable only at a potentially high price. It would be equally suprising if the union had intended to make an agreement which could be seriously prejudicial to a substantial body of its members. There was an obvious factual distinction between recruitment of pilots who had left other airlines to join the company and the acquisition of a major airline with its facilities, aircraft, routes and workforce. Accordingly, the appeal would be allowed. |