Pilots must be paid for 'flying' during holidays, Supreme Court rules

Around 2,750 British Airways pilots are entitled to be paid flying time and ‘time away from base’ supplements during their holidays, the Supreme Court ruled this morning.

Two years ago the Supreme Court referred the question of whether airline pilots should be able to claim a flying time supplement during their holidays to the European Court of Justice.

The Court of Appeal had rejected the pilots’ claims and warned that they were likely to have an impact on 10,600 similar claims brought by cabin crew against British Airways and hundreds more against Virgin and EasyJet.

The ECJ ruled last year that airline pilots were entitled to claim, during their holidays, not only their basic salary but “all the components intrinsically linked” to performance of the tasks required under their contracts and “all the elements” relating to their “personal and professional status as an airline pilot”.

Delivering judgment on behalf of the Supreme Court in British Airways v Williams and others [2012] UKSC 43, Lord Mance said the airline argued that “no-one conceived that paid annual leave could, under the Aviation Regulations, mean anything other than basic pay”.

Lord Mance said: “It is true that the Aviation Regulations, unlike the Working Time Regulations, do not explicitly address complaints relating to the payments for annual leave.

“But it is our duty to read the domestic regulations so far as possible to give effect to the Aviation Directive, as interpreted by the Court of Justice.”

He went on: “The concept of refusal to permit the exercise of a right can extend to cover refusal to permit the crew member an appropriate payment as part of the right to paid annual leave.

“The employment tribunal can on the like basis make such award as it considers just and equitable to compensate for such refusal.”

Lord Mance rejected British Airways’ arguments and remitted the pilots’ claims to an employment tribunal, both in respect of ‘flying pay’ and ‘time away from base’.

Lords Hope, Walker, Clarke and Sumption contributed to the judgment.