I'm trying to work this out:
Many countries / airlines around the world bond their pilots for one reason, because they have been burned by pilots coming in and getting ratings which cost a lot of time and money, and then in a few months those pilots just pack up and leave. I'm not 100% sure of the terms of this CX bond, but you cannot be taxed unless you are actually paid that money into your bank account etc. If the bond is $280k over 3 years and reduces pro-rata then so what? I don't see the issue here.. if you leave after 1 day you pay back $280k, if you leave after 1.5 years you pay back $140k, etc. After 3 years you owe nothing, am I correct in that?
If that is the case, then surely the guys who are returning or new people don't mind because they are going to be at CX for longer than 3 years? This is also done so the company gets a stable work force.
I have been bonded before, on 2 aircraft types. No money comes out of my payslip, its just numbers reducing daily until X amount of years was up and then I'm free of it (was normally 2 years) So in essence it never cost me a cent. I have seen some bonds on a 737 for $50k USD over 8 years and it only starts reducing on year 3! Now that is ridiculous and they can shove that.
So again, I haven't seen the fine print but 3 years is reasonable to me if it's just numbers on a screen.