The decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) declaring that the decision of the Ukrainian court on a ban on strike to the staff of AeroSvit airline is illegal allows all transport workers striking, Vice President of the Trade Union of AeroSvit Flight Attendants Veniamin Tymoshenko said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Wednesday.

"We received a revolutionary decision which is fair in the issue, and from now on, at least, transport workers have a chance of striking, even if Ukrainian law has not been brought in line with the European requirements and the right of transport workers to strike has not yet been established. I think that no judge now will take a liability of banning the strike," he said.

Tymoshenko said that the sector workers now can resolve their social issues at the enterprises via strikes.

As reported, the ECHR has declared that the decision of the Ukrainian court, adopted in October 2011, on a ban on strike to the staff of AeroSvit airline contradicts the European Convention on Human Rights.

In September 2011 the airline flight personnel, including five applicants, decided to start a protest against the delay in payment of salaries, as well as with the requirement to raise the level of safety of the airline aircraft.

The management of AeroSvit, in turn, appealed to the court, which decided to ban the strike on the basis of the transport code, which prohibits strikes in transport if they affect passenger transportation, as well as on the basis of the Labor Code, which prohibits strikes if they can affect the life and health of people.

The ECHR by its decision found a violation of Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights (the right to freedom of assembly and association) and ordered to reimburse the five applicants for moral damages in the amount of EUR 20,000.

A lawyer of Counselors legal & financial advisory law firm Oksana Chuhayenko said at the press conference that it is unlikely that Ukraine will challenge the decision of the ECHR.

She added that earlier a ban to strike was regulated by courts on the basis of Article 18 of the law on transport, although the requirement should be removed, as it has become out of date.

AeroSvit, which was the largest Ukrainian airline, started a bankruptcy procedure in late December 2012, which was later canceled by the court ruling, and at present, the airline does not exist psychically and it does not perform flights.