On 29th July 2026, the Court of Appeal handed down judgment in Crabb and others v TUI [2026] EWCA Civ 988 – in what is now the leading modern authority on the normative effect of collective agreements.
The case relates to TUI’s decision in 2022 to replace its PHI scheme with a less generous offering. A group of pilots employed by TUI (whose PHI benefits were slashed as a result) claimed that the introduction of the reduced benefit constituted a breach of their individual contracts of employment.
The pilots’ claims were dismissed by the High Court at first instance. That result has now been upheld by the Court of Appeal. In short, rather than acting in breach of individual contracts of employment, TUI introduced the amended PHI rights though an effective collective agreement, agreed by BALPA – the trade union representing all pilots employed by TUI.
Regardless of whether they individually agreed to the reduced benefit, the pilots’ contracts of employment contained a term incorporating collective agreements as amended and agreed by TUI and BALPA. That is precisely what had occurred.
Rather than constituting a breach of contract, the amendments had been made using the contractual mechanism agreed in the pilots’ contracts of employment. Accordingly, all their claims were dismissed.
Alongside Ed Williams KC, Andrew successfully represented TUI before both the High Court and the Court of Appeal.
Read the Judgment here:
A detailed summary of the case can be found here
Andrew is a leading employment law practitioner. He is listed as a “Pre-eminent” employment barrister in Doyle’s Guide. He was also nominated for the employment law junior of the year by Legal 500 in both 2022 and 2025.
