European training bonds, again....
 

Hello, a bit surprised there is not so much on training bonds from a recent date. Google is not of a big help either. Throughout my career I've Always heard that trainining bonds can only be enforced up to a year.
There is supposed to be a court ruling on this, I believe it was in Germany. Any links or feedback on the topic?

Well, they starting to demand the training bond, been there for more than a year… Forced selfemployment, you have to start your own company while not allowed to fly for anybody else, couldn't anyways since I did a 900 hours in 12 months. Contract says you have 5 days per month off in which you can travel home, never received this, it was more like 3 days off per month while staying in the most horrible hotels in my avation career. Maintenance dropping rapidly, why fix it if you can MEL it for 10 days….Payment of per diems was a big misunderstanding so no per diems were paid, contract is pretty clear in my opinion. Reason enough to leave. East European company, operating airplanes that other airlines will not touch but flying on behalf of state cariers. Had a rough year.

I believe there were different german court cases, and apparently the market value of a typerating played quite a large role, most bonds over 12 months were not legal in germany, however, CLAs can and do include longer bonds.

That is true for Germany, but other countries have different rules, in Austria it would even be legal to have a bond up to 8 years.
So simply depends on the country you work in, there is no general rule for it.

To elaborate, I have been sick, the contract states you automaticaly get fired after 7 days sickness and so they did, misconduct they dare to call this, pretty bizare.
First they force you to start a bogus company so they can dodge any social security or tax payments, since you are only 3 days home per month you can't freelance for another company which they also forbid in the contract which indicates you are actualy more than full time employed by this club.
So no payment and on top of this pay for this same period training cost back while you had no income and the actual typerating is expired at the same moment.

And regarding the background check, if you send in the course of normal operations an email to the company it is never answered, seemed to be a policy thing so no illusions about any feedback.
Guys that came with a typerating and left (company is massively left by pilots) never got a reference anyways.
I'm sure if you explain in a later stage it is an East European country that seems to be a little stuck in the past with manners and respect it can be elaborated, besides, I have copies of techlogs and montly summaries.

No way there is payback of trainingcosts after this abuse, never got my days off as promised in the contract.