Member owned recruitment agency?

[mrsurrey]

Hi everyone,

What do you think about the idea of setting up a member owned recruitment agency for pilots? Basically the members (pilots) would elect a board of directors (probably pilots, and probably voluntary) who in turn would appoint and manage the recruitment consultants.

The aims would be to create a very straight-forward and honest agency that pays market rates. Pilots would have better moral which would benefit the airlines too.

What do you think?


p.s. I don't think airlines would fear this as being "unionisation through the back door", because they could drop this agency at any time.

[Ancient Observer]

This is what the civil service would call a "Novel" idea.
Given that most recruitment agencies, and temporary employers - in both aviation and outside aviation - are sharks and thieves who would sell their grandmother for a quick profit, whoever sets this up is in danger of being eaten, with a very fast cash drain.

If you did want to go ahead with it, employ a thief to catch a thief. Get a big shark on board first. There are plenty of disillusioned agency "client directors" available.

[ZAV]

Whereas I agree that some agencies are crooks I have had some very good jobs via agencies. You just have to select the right one. I think your idea is not so good to be honest. I believe the better agencies are able to look after your interests and have knowledge of local laws and legislation which we dont. I have seen a couple of agencies run by pilots and believe me they have been a disaster. Better stick to what we are good at and that is flying..:ok:

[captplaystation]

Like most, I would imagine, my experience of agencies has been mixed.

Started off with one of the better known ones, initially no problem.
After a couple of years we discovered that some pilots from another agency the company were using were receiving more. Attempts to achieve parity were rebuffed, so we set up what the OP has suggested "An agency for pilots, run by pilots".
We had little success in the airline we were in,although we did at least manage to "employ" ourselves. Courtesy of that, we lost our last months salaries (of course) & were not able to make much inroads in placing people, as
A- the "established" agency were greasing palms, & B - the pilots were sceptical about leaving the biggies & joining us.
We then decamped to another country, where we "provided our services" (as Ryanair would describe it) & that of quite a few others, to 2 companies for a while.
This involved very little work on our part except chasing the airline to pay on time, of course some of the bigger agencies asked for 1mth up front. . .with us you just got paid late. Obviously unacceptable, and something we had not addressed before launching our "grand plan" :rolleyes:
I left the airline after 6mths & my fellow "Directors" :hmm: stuck together (Air Force buddies) to push me out. Fair do's ,I was doing very little of the chasing for money etc as I wasn't physically there any longer.
I have heard & read on here that they subsequently acquired a fairly onerous reputation, as greed raised it's ugly head & people were sent (at own expense) for non existant positions, salaries were unpaid, etc etc.
The original idea was rather wasted.

Next exposure to an agency resulted in various losses of salary due to "liberal interpretation" of the contract by the airline concerned, no support whatsoever from the agency, the one who pays calls the shots.
A couple of contracts with a smaller agency went very smoothly, I was always reassured by the fact that they took money up front, but I subsequently heard they had let down a group of pilots in another airline by not having the salaries in the bank when the plug was pulled, so I guess they also fell short of perfect.
Currently with an Agency that gets a lot of bad press on here. So far they have been impeccable, and indeed have a much better reputation amongst their contractors than those working for the CRAP (spelt backwards = ? ;) ) agency they compete with on this contract.
Finally, it is all a bit of a lottery, and, whilst the OP's idea is very worthy, I am convinced greed/self -interest will always win through, assuming as has been suggested, you don't get eaten/underbid by the bigger fish first.

[Airbus_a321]

CRAP (spelt backwards = ? )

..spelling CRAP backwards, shure ?, because for me this does not give "contractair" :yuk::confused:

[ZAV]

For once Catplaystation I enjoyed your post I felt it honest and to the mark. But A321 just been looking through your posts it seems that you have had quite a run with a lot of the agencies and indeed the airlines. Regarding the agency you refer to in my view they are OK we have a lot of happy Pilots working via them. I believe it is how you behave towards the agency as to how they treat you. Bit like life really..........:=

[itsresidualmate]

Having run a small engineer's agency, I'd never do it again. I contract now and will always use agencies, I will never go direct with an airline because;
1. Insurance. Ten years ago we were paying about £15k pa for LAEs and mechanics to work on passenger airliners (total premium)
2. Payments. Waiting about 2 - 3 months to get paid.
3. Airlines going out of business - cost us tens of thousands
4. Factoring costs. Its a huge financial turnover. What happens is you use a factoring service to pay contractors until the airline pays up. Basically you become the airline's free overdraft!

The mark up wasn't great. Don't believe this nonsense about charging £10k a month and paying the bloke £5k, ha! I laugh when I hear that! You'll be lucky to get about 8%, which for the hassle and risk I wouldn't bother with!
Oh yeah, the hassle, calling clients, contractors, pursing debt,... I'll stick with being a connie!