Any operator that chooses to go down the "bonding" road is either a) greedy or b) insecure in its ability to retain its own staff.
Think about it, we all spend an incredible amount of our own personal cash just to get the license so we can join in this little game called helicopters. It's part of our cost of doing business if we want to be pilots in the first place. We've done OUR part.
Now then, nobody ever held a gun to any operator's head and said "you WILL choose helicopters as the way to earn your income." Each operator became involved in the business under their own free will. Once they became involved, certain absolutes/unchangeables came into play, not the least of which being, if you want to operate helicopters, you MUST have pilots on staff to fly them. This is part of THEIR cost of doing business as an operator.
So what kind of a message is an operator sending when they demand you sign a bond of any type just to work for them? They are telling you that they are inherently distrustful of anyone they hire and will go to any length to make you feel you are a prisoner within their employ. An operator who feels training bonds are necessary does not have your best interests in mind, not by a long shot.
And it gets better. Allow me to share with you life at my company with respect to training bonds. The local authority demands all flight crew here attend the simulator once each year. Somehow, our fast-talking management was able to convince the authority it would be ok to send us once every TWO years. In the off year from the simulator, however, the company is supposed to provide us with comparable in-house training. I'll leave you all to guess if we actually receive any proper training in our off year from the sim.
But I digress. So yeah, it is a REQUIREMENT from the local authority that our pilots attend the simulator. This is not discretionary training on the part of our company. They MUST send us and have no choice in the matter. Well, a couple of years ago the "brains" of the company gets it into their heads they will start bonding pilots for one year after they attend the simulator. Which brings us to a whole new level of brain-dead thinking on the subject of training bonds. You guys are talking about being bonded for a NEW rating. How would you like to sign an agreement each time you completed a base-check??? That is effectively what is happening where I work.
Operators think they are protecting themselves by insisting employees sign training bonds for all kinds of useless reasons. In reality, they are just pushing their own staff to find increasingly more creative ways to shaft the operator right back.
Rant over.