In a first-of-its’-kind ruling, the Court of Appeal has addressed how worker status and agency worker rights apply in the context of long-term assignments. The ruling confirms that a Ryanair pilot hired via an employment agency was an agency worker and not self-employed, despite being engaged via a third party.
Following on from a set of major rulings by the Employment Tribunal and Employment Appeal Tribunal, which found MCG (an agency engaged by Ryanair to provide pilots across their systems) and Ryanair to be wrongly classifying agency pilots as self-employed- the two companies appealed the decision to the Court of Appeal, which began hearing the case in April this year.
This week, the Court found in favour of BALPA (the professional Pilots Union) on behalf of Lutz, confirming him to be a worker, forming a landmark decision that will have major implications of employment practices in aviation, where using third parties to recruit pilots and classifying them as self-employed is a common practice.
The court found that an employment relationship could be found within Mr Lutz’s contract with MCG, and that a five-year supply agreement was still a ‘temporary’ supply under the Agency Workers Regulations 2010- defeating Ryanair’s argument that Lutz could not be an agency worker due to the length of the fixed period.
The decision comes as a major legal victory for BALPA, which establishes that the individual was indeed both a worker and an agency worker of Storm Global-thus entitling him to a greater number of employment rights and protections- especially in respect of paid annual leave and a pension contributions contract from their employment agency.
Despite a right to substitution existing in Lutz’s contract, the court found that there were restrictions because of airline safety regulation. The case follows a line of other ‘worker status’ rulings in recent years. BALPA has said that the outcome in this case is expected to have 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.
Previously, General Secretary Amy Leversidge has committed to seeking compensation for pilots who have been denied their rights should the Court of Appeal uphold the ruling. On the news of this positive judgment, Leversidge 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.”
This ruling follows a string of high-profile victories for gig economy workers — including the 2021 Supreme Court decision against Uber and the 2018 ruling against Hermes — where drivers and couriers were also found to be workers, not self-employed contractors as the companies had claimed.”