Those contractors agencies are the EBOLA equivalent in the Civil aviation jobs. It really should be banned from the industry. Pilots, cabin crews and engineers should be directly employed by their airline company with a proper contract.
A couple of weeks ago, Sat Nov 15th I think, in Daily Telegraph there was an article reporting on comments by a government minister. i've forgotten the name of the sports retail company, but he was scathing in his criticism of the company policy to have so many workers on zero-hour contracts. He said that a large successful profit making company should not be using such contracts in 21st century. It was unacceptable to have so many front-line workers with no protection of their rights, no regular salary, no pension contributions, no NI payments etc. He called for a review of such contracts in todays workplace.
Sound familiar. If people opened their mouths they might find they have a friend in high places.