Am Not Sure
Dropp the Pilot, I appreciate your reference - Boswell; whether the philosophy holds even across this board, is perhaps not for today.
I want to walk you across this forum to another thread; Ethiopian Airline Pilot Jobs - warning! and this is what strontium posted:-
Really?
You people are the most clueless bunch I've ever seen. You misread their mentality sooooo much it's pathetic! You're still thinking in terms of the neat and tidy contract work you're used to elsewhere. Forget it! This is a different world and you're doing a disservice to anyone who would benefit from working there.
If anyone out there is serious about the airline, here's some real insight you can use instead of the vitriol I see posted: Ethiopian, or as the literary genius Zubenelwhatever calls it, "Ethiopean," is a government-owned enterprise with profit being only one of its many motivators. It has survived decades of political subversion, mismanagement, wars, civil wars, disasters, countless hijakings and coups-galore to become a respectable outfit in Africa. To think that your pompous threat of "boycott" will pain the airline is comedic delusion at its best! Just mind boggling, laughable cluelessness!
Do yourself a big favor and get it through your heads that you'll go without pay for training- so don't come broke and threaten them with a story that you'll turn into a beggar if they don't pay you immediately- they don't care. As far as they know, living on the edge of bankruptcy is your own problem. Know that you have to be patient with EVERYTHING while there. Everyone is delayed and given the run around, including the locals, not just you. Save your patronizing as no one will accommodate your workers' rights philosophy, neither will they play the role of satisfying your unemployment needs. The fact that you get paid 3 times a local captain will make your indignation seem out of place at the office. They're proud, and you appear as just another in a line of know-it-all foreigners with a chip on their shoulder, so consider your attitude before you try to join- a friendly one will get you much farther than pounding on some agency contract or a lecture on labor laws. They dictate the terms. They're liable to change them. Take it, or leave it- for a better airline if you can.
That's reality, so you either know about it and make it work, or you can spend your time debating the virtues of the Magna Carta- your choice. One will lead to a job, the other to frustration. Some are satisfied, some are not. Most expats are level-headed and know enough to get the maximum out of their circumstances. Others are incompetent boobs who slip through the cracks and pray their next screw-up doesn't cost them their job. Or if they get rejected, spew trash and fumble around forums to boost their fallen ego. If you do make it through training and come to appreciate the work, like some of the more balanced expats there do, you'll have a variety of destinations not found at most other places, great hotels, time in one of the safest capitals anywhere, and a chance to see a unique culture.
It's hard flying, but think for yourself and don't listen to the poison spouted like the "starvation versus shiny jets" brain-fart, and the "bottom-feeder airline" nonsense. The third-world shortcomings come as a great revelation these knuckleheads. The easier it is for you to realize complaining won't change the culutre, the sooner you'll adapt.
Those uninformed should get a better grasp of the reality of the world they live in, stop acting the prima donna and first try to understand what they're getting into before becoming online crusaders.
The principle and margins of these two discussions are in union. You might have to advise strontium about Boswell but it's equally relevant to live in the present. Draw own conclusions.