The UK Supreme Court has dismissed a northern metro operator case over transport workers pay against two unions, including one headed by Mick Lynch.
The operator of the Tyne and Wear Metro, Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive, trading as Nexus, tried to appeal to the Supreme Court against the RMT and Unite the Union.
This case stems from claims brought against the group by employees over pay, an issue that went to an employment tribunal.
As a result, there was a collective agreement reached between the unions and Nexus, in which the group agreed to consolidate a pre-existing entitlement referred to as a ‘productivity bonus’ into the basic pay of the employees.
In the previous proceedings, the employees had successfully argued that their shift allowances were supposed to be calculated as a percentage uplift of their basic salary including the productivity bonus.
But Nexus had been calculating shift allowances on an unenhanced basis, the employees’ shift allowances had been underpaid.
The metro operator issued a legal challenge to rectify the letter agreement for ‘common mistake’.
The High Court then rejected the unions’ arguments and dismissed the strike-out and summary judgment applications. The unions took the case to the Court of Appeal, which ruled in favour of the unions in 2022.
This week, the Northern operator took the case to the Supreme Court, and parties went to a hearing back in May. Today, the justices unanimously dismisses the appeal, siding with RMT and Unite the Union.