In a landmark ruling likely to have significant implications for UK employers, the Court of Appeal has upheld an earlier legal decision that a pilot flying for Ryanair was not a self-employed contractor and therefore entitled to full employment rights.
The Court ruled that Jason Lutz had been wrongly classified as self-employed and was a ‘worker’ of the aviation employment agency Storm Global, as well as its ‘agency worker’ hired out to work for Ryanair.
The case was originally heard by an Employment Tribunal, which Ryanair appealed, then upheld by an Employment Appeal Tribunal, a decision also challenged by the airline.
The Court of Appeal decision now means that all workers hired in this way are entitled to key rights and protections such as holiday pay, sick pay, and proper rest breaks.
The British Airline Pilots’ Association (BALPA), which supported Lutz’s case, said the ruling is expected to have “far-reaching consequences for employers across aviation, gig economy platforms, delivery services, and other sectors reliant on flexible labour”.
Companies will now have to review how they classify and treat freelance or contract workers hired out to work for third parties.
Amy Leversidge, BALPA’s General Secretary, said: “This is a landmark legal victory for not only Jason Lutz and our member pilots, but agency workers all across the UK aviation industry and beyond.
“For too long, aviation workers have been denied fundamental rights through complex and ambiguous employment arrangements. The Court of Appeal’s unanimous judgement sends a powerful message: labels like ‘self-employed’ cannot be used to sidestep employment protections.”
Alice Yandle, Partner at the legal firm Farrer & Co, which represented BALPA in court, said it was the first time the Court of Appeal had considered the issue of worker and agency worker status in long-term assignments.
BALPA said that using third parties to recruit pilots and classifying them as self-employed is a common practice in aviation and that the ruling is “expected to open the door to several more claims against employers from pilots who may be entitled to back pay”.
“The consequences of this ruling go to show that companies trying to use the fiction of a service company to deny workers their rights would be better off ensuring that legal protections and workers’ rights are provided from the start,” said Leversidge.
Photo: Ryanair
Ryanair appealed against an earlier ruling that the pilot was an employee.
