Territorial Limits of Union Recognition

In Netjets Management Limted v Central Arbitration Committee, the operator of a fleet of private business jets has failed to convince a judge that it is not obliged to recognise a trade union for the purposes of collective bargaining on the basis that the international mobility of its pilots means that its business model falls outside the territorial limits laid down by the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (TULRCA).



Netjets Management Limited employs more than 700 pilots who work on the basis of no fixed routes or schedules. Each flight is arranged to meet a specific client’s needs and can start and finish anywhere in Europe. Pilots, who can chose from a number of ‘gateway’ airports to which they are transported at the beginning and end of each flight, are paid in Euros and only about a fifth of the company’s flights depart from airports in the United Kingdom.



At the High Court, the company challenged a decision of the Central Arbitration Committee that there were no territorial restrictions relevant to an application by trade union Skyshare for recognition as an authorised representative of the company’s pilots. The company argued that there was no ‘bargaining unit’ in respect of which the statutory system of union recognition could apply because of the limits on the territorial extent of Schedule A1 of TULRCA.



However, dismissing the company’s case, Mr Justice Supperstone upheld the committee’s decision that the connection of the company’s pilots with Great Britain was ‘sufficiently strong’ for the union to be able to seek recognition. He said that Skyshare’s interpretation of the statutory provisions was in line with the right to union representation enshrined in Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights.