Doggy7
Your faith in big business is touching (your surname isn't "Dixon", perchance?)
I was one of the (at least) two pilots rejoining Air NZ in '94 who were not going to be paid until we had finished our sim work. In that company's defence, it only took a request for a letter to that effect (for the Social Services folks) to get a "food and shelter" payment to get us through.
The Brierly rapists of that time are really not much different to the QANTAS owners: witness the recent buyout saga.