Flufdriver
From what I know, the agency will take over all payments from the airline to you. So every month the agency gets your salary and their monthly fee and then passes your salary on to your account and they retain the fee. So it’s on a rolling basis, which means they won’t want to lose you and piss off the airline so some of them at least will try and solve your problems if they come up….
They won’t skim your salary from what I can see as it does them no good. Contract pilots get paid higher wages and that’s accepted by the airlines and the fee just goes on top of that. The fees can vary, they can be low if the agency really wants the business and keep other out, down to maybe $500 per pilot per month. To the likes of Japan where in my view the Japanese airlines are being robbed with fees as high as $3000 per month per pilot!!
You sign a contract with the agency and they sign one with the airline. You are a contractor and not an employee, which has benefits and disadvantages to you the pilot,