International Carriage by Air

7.1 Warsaw Convention 1929

This section will include the historical details in order to see the Law creating process and examine the reasons of its establishment in order to better understand its purpose and regulating aims.

After the First World War the growing development of the airline industry has driven to the necessity of establishing international rules for its regulation. Although, the Paris Convention 1919 had defined the sovereignty of airspace above each country’s territory, many countries presented their own laws concerning the obligations of the crafts in their airspace. Due to the fact of poor coordination, variety of laws and regulations in small scale distance and fast growing international air travel, the industry had to face different legal problems, conflicts between countries and even air accidents.

It was recognized that by creating a single list of rules followed by most countries it would be possible to avoid all the challenges. In addition, travelers would feel more secure while traveling, since they knew there would be less chance of legal redress if something went wrong. The result of this was the Convention of the Unification of Certain Rules relating to International Carriage by Air – the “Warsaw Convention”.

The Convention pointed the rights and obligations of the carrier and also has directions for the standardized operations, ticketing issues and other documentation regulation. The preamble of the Convention sets out its purpose:

“…regulating in a uniform manner the conditions of international transportation by air in respect of the documents used for such as transportation and the liability of the carriers”.

The aim of the Convention is to balance the relation between the passengers and carriers considering the interests of both. In particular, the level of protection has grown, for customers in terms of legal and physical safety, for the carriers in terms of financial security.

The United Kingdom ratified the Convention and it was adopted by the law on 14 February 1933 by the Carriage by Air Act 1932.

7.2 Application of the Convention in the Scottish Law

The Convention applies to all international journeys or baggage transfer performed by airlines for payment. The flight is considered to be international if the departure and destination are (a) in the state of two separate Contracting Parties; or (b) in the state of one Contracting Party, with an agreed stopping spot in other state. (ABTA.com, 2015)

7.3 Passengers’ Tickets

A ticket is not considered to be a written contract, however it provides evidence of the passenger obtaining the right to travel. A ticket must be delivered to the passenger and must include the information:

· Highlight the departure and destination names

· If there are any stopping points in the territory of another country

· Notice that if the trip includes the stop in the country other than destination, according to the Warsaw Convention in most cases, restricts the liability of an airline for death or injury of the passenger, as well as loss of the luggage

7.4 Delay

Article 19 claims that carrier is liable for the delay of the passenger or cargo transfer.

7.5 Overbooking

Overbooking is not considered to be a ‘delay’, according to Article 19. Therefore, the Convention provides no cover for people left outboard and majority of airlines do not provide or limit the liability for overbooking in the conditions applicable to the ticket.

7.6 Regulatory Bodies

The International Air Transport Association is one the worlds widest trade association, that has more than 80% of Total Available Seat Kilometers air traffic (IATA.org, 2015). A wide amount of carrier standards are defined under the umbrella of IATA, what is more, it provides consulting and training services in many areas that relevant to aviation.

Most parts of UK’s aviation industry are regulated by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). In order to operate the business within the sector in the UK, it has to meet the economic, safety and consumer protection regulations enforced by the CAA. In some areas of aviation, the CAA is the UK’s primary regulator. In others, such as the type of the certification of aircraft and components – the responsibility for regulation has passed to the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) (GOV.UK, 2015).

Any operator who intends to use aircraft registered outside the EU for activities in UK must apply for the permit from the Department for Transport (DfT). The DfT also regulates the aviation security sector through its Aviation directorate – Aviation Security Division (GOV.UK).

Employment Law

There is a considerable amount of detail concerning the regulation of employment

8.1 Discrimination

There are two major Acts that protect Scottish employees from unfair from discriminating in terms of sax, race or marriage: Sex Discrimination Act 1975 (SDA) and Race Relations Act 1976 (RRA). The Equal Pay Act 1970 covers the issue of fair payment to men and women in terms of the employment.

The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 copes with discrimination of disabled people. Part I of the Act identifies disability as ‘a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on a person’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities’. The employers are responsible to make adjustments to the working environment so that it fits the needs of a disabled worker.

The aim of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 is to ensure the ex-offenders to obtain a job and become a law-abiding member of a society. The Act contains the details about the length of offenders conviction, after which an employer cannot refuse taking the applicant for work, referring to the offense committed (Townshend_Smith, 2015).

Discrimination is illegal if it is based on a person’s sex, race, marriege or disability. In case, the employer displays the discriminative attitude while hiring or treating the employee, he is obliged to pay fines, for example see Appendix 2.

8.2 Contract of employment

The contract of employment is arranged when the employee accepts the job offer. This contract is of primary importance for both parties, therefore, negotiations are held in order to settle terms and conditions. If the contract is not written the employee must be provided with the statement of most important terms of the employment that are the following:

· Name of the employee and the employer

· The hiring date of the employee

· Payment rate, or the way it is calculated (commission, percentage of sales)

· Payment intervals

· Working hours, overtime payment

· Holidays information

· Terms in case of the illness of the employee

These list is provided in section I of the Employment Rights Act 1996.

8.3 Duties of the Employer

The duty to pay wages is the common duty of the employer. Every employee working 8 or more hours has to obtain a receipt for the payment before its commitment. It has to provide the information about the net income of the employee, gross amount and any additional legal deductions and the purpose of the deduction (Townshend_Smith, 2015).

The duty to respect means fair treatment to all the employees. The failure to implement this duty may cause the dismissal of the stuff and poor organization image in opinion of the employees.

The duty to take care of the employee is a common law . An employer is responsible for any injuries of his employee at the working place.

The employer must follow the law and is personally responsible for updating the knowledge on relevant litigations concerning working conditions, employee treatment etc.

8.4 The Working Time Regulations 1998

The implementation of the EU Working Time Directive in the Scottish Law provide an information on the maximum week working hours – 48 (overtime included). In addition, a week

is considered to be a 7 day period rather than time from Monday to Sunday. Employer has to keep track of all employees working hours (Townshend_Smith, 2015).

8.5 Health and Safety

The aim of the Safety and Work Act 1974 is to increase the employer awareness of his employees protection and care. In addition to that, this Act is the part of the Criminal Law, thus penalties are undertaken for those who do not follow the regulations. Two bodies: Health and Safety Commission (HSC) and Health and Safety Executive (HSE), whose duties is to promote the regulations of the Act and enforce its legal functions. Some of the general duties of the employers according to the Act:

· Providing information, instruction, and training to ensure the employee awareness of safety working condition

· Provision of safe access to the working facilities

· Prepare a written statement on the safety policies of the organization

· Provide a proper supervision to the employees

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 476