Exodus
Ryanair as a private company is free to conduct it's business in any way it see's fit, What concerns me most is the cynical exploitation of all its business partners, from Boeing, Airports, Staff and of course customers, this is almost unique in any business i know of, at least in the developed world.
One can argue that banks rip off customers, but their staff seem to be well remunerated?
There are some basic things that employee's should not have to fund, applying for a job, reading a CV, undertaking a sim assessment should not be a cost on the individual, it is a cost on the business and deductible against profits, like wise the provision of uniforms, a chef may have to provide their own "whites" but they belong to them and go to the next job with them, unless it says " Gordon Ramesy" in which case GR should pay for them, ditto Ryanair.
The whole contractor thing and self employed status of these contractors has a bad smell to it, they are not free lance, FR produces rosters, you can't decline a duty, it smacks of tax avoidance at best evasion at worst.
Now I'm no fan of paying tax, but if the Irish government, who seem not to be too clever where money is concerned are loosing out then it should be remembered that the are being bailed out/ propped up by the EU and the Government of Britain. We all have choices to some degree, but as one of the SSTR people pointed out, should he go and work in a burger and loose his skill set or cough up the money for a job? , i personally don't find the SSTR scheme unpalatable, unfair maybe, but its not FR worst excess.
My prediction is that as the LoCo market becomes saturated and FR costs increase as they keep aircraft that will need C checks and fly from airports with overheads their expansion will slow and their cost will start to catch up, at which time the only way they can improve yields will be improve the product, for pilots FR should remember that loyalty is a two way street