So some of the critique here lately in the media is unjustified and everyone should just get on with it and if you don't like it leave.
Personally i find this view difficult to understand but in some cases then i would say you are probably right, it is better to just leave or get on with it or at least raise them internally to be dealt with instead of becoming someone that see a need to make a thing or two publicly about things. In some cases however i don't think is even possible to resolve things internally since the company are the ones that put you in the situation in the first place.
In Ryanair self-employed pilots used to have no choice to get a job if they were not 'willing' to sign a contract having to join one of a number of limited companies prepared by a set of accountants. By doing that they become a director of the company and had to use the services of these 'approved accountants' charging the pilot around 4% of their gross annual income. This rate was not negotiable nor was the setup so if you didn't like it you couldn't work as a pilot for the company. For some of these limited companies this meant the accountancy charge could be as high as 13.000€ per annum for handling expenses, tax and payroll and some other services. Individually figures around 2000€-4500€ were common for the director which is in the end of the day a pilot working for the company (an employee also it could turn out). It should be added also that if the pilot asked a accountant outside the ones you needed to use, the same service would typically cost a third to half of what the pilot needed to pay to get 'employment.'
Jobs nowadays are scarce and pilot jobs notoriously difficult to get close to home even on the same continent so if this situation does not constitute a prisoners dilemma then frankly i dont know what is since you have no way of changing this into something more appropriate if you want to get a job and do what you are trained to do. Without any representation it becomes a game where you have little to no power to highlight issues such as safety since the theats of punishment and oppression is all apparent and on occasion also very clearly seen via memo's such as the latest response to a safety petition by the Chief Pilot.
Additionally the pilots used to have or some no doubt still do a liability clause where the pilot "in the performance of his or her duties" were or still are financially responsible for all liability incurred with no upper limit including omission. Getting insurance would make the whole employment uneconomical since the rate for putting it in place astronomical.
I doubt many think this is the way it should be in any profession. So next time we hear arguments like; just leave, stop whining and get out i can't help to think that it is exactly that has led this profession into what it is today.
Or is this just me whining?