Well here we go again. In dives The Guvnor, the wannabe airline owner (failed) and wannabe pilot (failed), with his severely convoluted version of the facts. And he has the temerity to accuse me of scaremongering. I direct your attention to the post above from our friend Flanker, to which I return in a moment. Though I am now firmly of the view that The Guvnor is unworthy of our responses, perhaps even unworthy of being permitted to post on this website, I feel he must not be allowed to get away with his blinkered and one-sided perspective on the issue of bonding. So … deep breath … and:
Guv, your argument about the CAA is, strangely, in support of what I have already said. Not anyone will be permitted to do training. Only TRTO certified operators will be so permitted. These are AIRLINES. Thus, as I have already said, were pilots to refuse bonding and payment of their own type rating, these airlines will be forced to train their own pilots at their own expense. Shock horror! This is, of course, what they did before the greedy eighties and the era of penpusher corporate domination.
You said, quote, “I suspect that there are numerically far more cases of people running off and leaving their employers in the lurch rather than employers screwing their employees”. I suspect that you are quite right. Of course it needs to be said that, numerically, there are infinitely more employees to so run off than there are employers to do the said 'screwing'. Thus your statement is mere absurdity, is it not?
Would it not be far more germane to this discussion to consider the question of why pilot employees feel the need to run off and leave their employers? And we all know why SOME employers wish to ‘screw’ their employees – it’s profitable, isn’t it? Naturally, if employers are ‘screwing’ their employees then little wonder that many will seek to run off. The evidence is there from many sources before friend Flanker posted his story above that SOME employers do use bonding as a lever or a threat for their own ends rather than for the lofty ideals you describe of protecting their “training investment”. And we have heard from others on similar threads that SOME airlines have bonded pilots in circumstances where the said training was actually provided by the aircraft manufacturer without charge to the said airline.
Ignoring these areas of reprehensible, possibly unlawful, conduct by employers, we should ask what it is that motivates pilots to move between employers in circumstances other than where they feel compromised with respect to safety. Pilots, like any other employees worth their salt, naturally seek progression. But I can think of few who would feel that two or three years is too long to wait for such progression in normal circumstances.
What is it, then, that causes a pilot to jump ship sooner than this reasonable period of time? I have myself left an employer as quickly as, in one case at least, just three months. Why? Because the employer had lied to me, had misrepresented the company and its operation, had put me to enormous time, trouble and expense only to be rewarded with the awful realisation that I had been conned by experts in the art. Others I know have left for reasons such as being bludgeoned into doing things their consciences would not allow them to do indefinitely. One pilot of my acquaintance left his employer because the requirements placed upon him (and, I hasten to add, not others) by his employer were so intensely arduous that he had become ill and ultimately had his pilot medical certificate suspended. So, in these circumstances what do you have to say about such pilots ‘bond-jumping’, for want of a more equitable description?
As to your remarks about pilots’ “huge salaries” and what you say they have spent on obtaining their licence, we have gone over this area ad nauseam without you ever having shown any comprehension of the realities involved. Frankly, you begin to sound as if you are more than a little envious of pilots simply because you were unable to become one. I wonder if you’ll ever feel the same way about airline employers. But then, of course, it is probable that, in starting up dubious failed operations in darkest Africa, you have found it much easier to become an employer (not yet successful) than a pilot.
Your predictions as to the likely occurrences should the EU ban bonding of pilots will, in the fullness of time, be shown to be utter poppycock. Do keep dreaming on about the day when you will be able to tell pilots to go off and pay for their own heavy jet rating. I’m sure it gives you many a pleasant night with yourself.
Flanker, if you are in the position you describe then you have many courses of action that you might wish to follow. If it does go to court, don’t get stressed out. You are not alone. Put up a posting on this site if you need help and it shall arrive sooner than you might imagine.
Boss Raptor, I think your nom de plume says it all, doesn’t it?