I joined easy on TRSS, having already flown a jet with another company, but it was the only way this company wanted to hire me. But even though I had to (and still do) pay for my type, they still almost doubled my salary! Now before I get everybody saying I personally killed the industry bla bla bla and etc.
I was then trying to pay back my loan and live at the same time on 18,500 a year. easyJet offered me 35,000 plus flightpay. I didn't care what it was called, it was what I needed to do, so I did it.
So it is not all black and white gentlemen, not every TRSSer out there is actually a low hour pilot begging for a job. My old company wasn't about to go bust either, for me it was plain economics: It was the best offer on the table and I needed a change badly!
I guess what I am trying to say is that if the sceme indeed didn't exist, it would have been good because for me as well because I would now earn more.
But if you put yourself in my situation back then, you might understand why I did it. You may then also see it is not the unemployed pilots fault who are happy to accept anything handed (logically).
It is because there is a surplus of pilots on the market. If there weren't enough pilots around, the company wouldn't be able to fill all the trss slots. So then they would have to offer extras to get people to fill 'em, and that would be the end of it.
But you can't expect an individual to hold out for the better of the whole! THAT is what i call naive!
And to everyone who proclaims here that it is the TRSSers fault and that we ruin the market and so on: I would love to see you when your company goes bust and you find you have the choice between a TRSS job and no job. Ofcourse you will then not care about your family, your morgage, and repayments on your pilot loan.. No, because you care ONLY about the greater good of the pilot community and therefore you will rather leave aviation then to take thát job and possibly make the next pay negotiations slightly more difficult for your fortunate (ex)colleagues that still have their job.
Yeah right. Wake up, smell the coffee. I agree with Flaps One, if the community gets together and organizes you are strong. You can achieve things. You might even get easyJet to drop the TRSS! And then Mr. Bokkenrijder and Mr. Flaps One could be friends again as well. Wouldn't that be nice?
