I'll, give you my example many moons ago:
- I approached the employer looking for work and got the response "I will use you but you have to be endorsed on these aircraft. You pay me for the endorsements and I will refund the money if you stay 6 months."
- I did the endorsements and forked out a couple of grand only to find that he paid half the award. By this time I am skint and can't afford to travel.
- I took it on the chin, stayed for 6 months and as I got my refund for the endorsements handed him a bill for the outstanding underpayments.
- It took over 12 months to get only a fraction of the over $10k he owed me an yes he was already before the courts for underpayment when I started with him. So he knew what he should be paying and by the way he told me he paid the award before I did the endorsements.
P.S. It didn't hurt my career as it wasn't only the pilots he was screwing over. All the other operators in the area hated his guts because they paid the award.