A Flight Engineer colleague of mine a few years ago, had a brother who was a specialist in employment law,( solicitor ) he said that the company could only bond you once and that any further bonding was indeed illegal. This was because they were effectively halting your promotion opportunities which is illegal and against the employment laws of our land.
Unfortunately Companys appear to do as they wish these days, with our unions being nothing more than toothless tigers and contracts being broken all the time. I have lost count of how many times my contract has been broken in the last 12 months !
BMI are about to have their contracts torn up and re-written shortly.
If you are brave enough and wealthy enough to take on the company solictors then go for it.
The bottom line is do you want the new type on your license ?
Also what sort of bond is it ? If it is the one where you sign up to paying a monthly lump sum to a bank and the company also pays the same amount into your your account, then if you leave you're still left paying your monthly installments.
The company you subsequently go to work for would have to be paying substantially more for you to benefit.
They are all pretty much the same these days.
