Bonding Agreements

[Mangaman]

I'd be interested to hear vews on the legality or otherwise of bonding agreements, particularly where the company fails to honour other areas of a contract, specifically with referance to salary. Obviously there will be a discussion over the contract however I'm interested to know how many options i have available, or have i signed myself into effective slavery.:(

[Lon More]

Not knowing who you're with it is difficult to say
Bonnding agreements are becoming a standard part of the package these days because of the increasing costs of training, Will probably peak at validation then taper off over the years

For pilots it's been going since nineteen canteen but for controllers it's a fairly recent thing - probably to stop Jerricho jumping ship again:E

[niknak]

I, unlike many others, see a bonding agreement as a matter of honour and personal integrity.

If all your ATCO training is funded by your employer, thats around £50K after they have got grants and tax incentives, which they have invested in you, perhaps a little less.

Most employers, after spending this trifling sum, ask for a return of between three and five years from the employee.
Most employers will put the employee on the bottom rate of the scale once the employee has validated, some will ask for different terms, but very few ask for any return other than the 3 - 5 year loyalty.

To put into perspective, if you wanted/needed to individually fund your own training as an ATCO, it would cost you in the region of £65K for all the ratings and living costs during the courses, how long would it take you to either save for that, or get the money back once you are earning?

If you sign a bonding contract, expect to adhere to it to the letter, to do otherwise would be naieve and dishonest.

[roundthebend]

In a previous job I signed a bonding contract. They paid for me to attend 4 IT courses which were necessary for the job. The contract was very basic and it stated a declining payback scale. In total I was bonded for 3 years.

However, after 2 years working for the company I realised that my training was going to waste and the company had no interest in my career. I wanted to use my skills to investigate possible system improvements. They weren't interested. So I asked if I could learn new skills (in my own time) so at least I could have a more versatile role. They refused. They then told me that I could have a pay rise, but that would be the last one for the next few years despite the fact that my colleagues were earning considerably more for the same job.

In the end, I felt like I had a choice. Sit and stagnate for another 12 months to avoid breaking the bonding contract. Or buy myself out to further my career. Bearing in mind that the IT world moves at an alarming rate.

I opted for the buy-out, because I just couldn't stand working for a company with such a bad attitude.

In my view, the bonding contract was weighted completely in their favour. In future, I won't be so naive to sign one with such a bias. If a company wants me to sign up to a bond, I will ask that there are terms for both parties to adhere to. That's a very tricky thing to define, of course.

Perhaps the company I worked for didn't have the experience to create a fair bonding contract (or they exploited my naivety). I will certainly look closely at anything put before me in future.

My point here is that niknak is correct - however, bonds can stifle the working environment. Both parties need to make sure that the contract doesn't have too many holes, and both parties need to behave in a responsible manner.......if that's at all possible.

Mangaman - good luck.

[nibog]

They started bonding the trainees in my unit about 8 years ago in an attempt to prevent trained ATCOs from leaving after their training was completed. Like lots of units, our unit is made up mostly of older controllers with only a minority of younger staff.
The end result is that our ATS Management have managed to completely screw up the system and aleinate the staff so much, that it's not only the older controllers that are leaving now. Even the junior staff are being turned off ATC and paying up to £15k each to leave. It's similar to some of the situations you see in industrial relations disputes - Starts with... Being called in on rest days, then shift and OJTI allowances being "adjusted", this equals less pay,.. less time off as more staff leave,.. less morale and the cycle continues and it looks like a really great result on paper up on the 2nd floor. Service still being provided AND costs are down!!!
It's not until it's already too late that they'll realise their mistakes.

But I'm still here.

The problem isn't the bonding as such, but is that some ATS managers are using it as a means of exploiting their staff to such an extent that they end up without any staff. That being said, if you signed it, you signed it.

Thats the end of my rant. IMHO of course.