blackred try airberlin, as one of my former employers so wonderfully told me. Bought himself a jet type rating and was given a job with them. And more specifically in the Uk I seem to recall that BMI was offering type ratings back in the early 90's.
'Paying for type ratings is not new either; it was very common in the late '80s and early '90s when I was first looking at obtaining a commercial flying job. And even those lucky BA Cadets of yore effectively paid for their training and ratings through a reduced salary, just like the CTC cadets do now.' Quote was posted by scroggs in 2004 link here
http://www.pprune.org/archive/index.php/t-141180.html
One only has to look to the mainland to see that the practise has been going on for years.
Question for you, how is it that the charter outfits through Alteon etc offering pay to fly and easy with summer only commands six months work on 1000 a month is acceptable but what RYR is doing is not? Or how about the thousands of contract jobs going in Asia or the Middle East of Africa are those not the same as what RYR is offering? Are you complaining about them as well?
As to why people take the deal, do you think its because its possibly the only deal on offer at the moment? Some of us do have to pay the bills you know! You seem suprised that a company and indeed any company looks after itself and its shareholders above all else please tell me this is not news to you?