Brookfield working practices, conditions, and Contracts
 

Hello, and welcome to the Thread.

I wanted to start this in order to show people just what is going on at Brookfield.

I have insider information as to what is going on at the company, and how they treat the contract pilots, especially at Ryanair.

Please be aware that this is not just a bashing of the company of people working within it, it is a frank and honest insight into what is going on, what it means to be contracted to them, what your rights are, and most importantly, (especially for the people that are straight out of training as a cadet and working for Ryanair), what the tax implications are when you become a contractor.

Tax
 

When you sign the contract with Brookfield, it clearly states that you must be either Self Employed, or Ltd company.
This means that Brookfield have no responsability towards you. You must deal with your own tax and accounts, and with your own national insurance.
My advice, if you are going to Ryanair, register with HMRC as Ltd company or Self employed BEFORE signing the training contract and starting the type rating. This will allow you to pay for the rating under the banner of your company. This will mean that your company is £25,000 in loss, however it also means that you might be able to claim the training costs back for the type rating against tax. IE, you must pay that £25,000 back to the company at a nominal rate, before the company is in profit and starts having to pay tax on profits.

Remember, you only pay tax on profit if you are self employed, meaning all expenses incurred will be deducted from the total amount you are paid, and you pay tax on the remainder.

If you are a limited company, things are a whole lot more difficult. There is something called IR35, which unfortunately, by the looks of things, a lot of Brookfield Pilots are operating under. This means that you are operating outside the HMRC rules of running a Ltd company. You must make sure that you are not doing this!! - I CAN'T STRESS THIS ENOUGH!!

all due respect whistle and you may well get to it in time.but if brookefield are operating illegaly or close to illegaly.why are you giving advice as to how best work with them?ooops!better run here come the fr/brk apologists.i'll be back later.

W.B. I hear from friends that they've been forced to take a calendar month off duty. They cannot find out who imposes is, other than it's in their contract with BRK, nor why.
If this a ruse for BRK to try and demonstrate they are not fulltime employees, it won't work, not after a few years of same. But you said in your posts that BRK pilots have to be self-employed or a company. If this is so, why the need for the previous scenario? Also, if so, how can an agency impose such a restriction? If indeed, if they can control what you do and how you do it, how can they also say you are an independant company? It all sounds very dubious. Do you have any factual insight?
Do any other agencies operate thus, and if not why not? I've worked for various contractors outside UK, and had discussions with some of the major agencies in recent years. None have suggested anything about a mandatory break in a working year. So what's behind this wth BRK?

The Grim Repa -

As most people know, going to Ryanair as a cadet means going to Ryanair as a Brookfield Contract Pilot.
The sad fact of the matter is that for the majority of people coming out flight training now, there are no jobs, and the only company that is still having a strong intake of people, (paying for their own ratings I might add), is Ryanair.
Now I am not going to make accusations or tell you what you should or shouldn't do or think because that is counter poductive, I just want people to know the facts of being a contract pilot with FR and BRK.

Rat 5 -

You are required to be a sole trader or Ltd in order for BRK to not have to pay employer NI and taxes, sick pay, and pension options. It states that in the contract;-
"All payments to the pilot are inclusive of any employer's costs or contributions and should any such costs or contributions be imposed upon the contractor, then these will be deductible from the payments listed in Schedule 1".
Ie, this means that if the revenue decide that what they and you are doing is incorrect and declare that the pilot IS employed full time by BRK, then they will take out all the employer contributions that are required to be paid under a normal PAYE basis from your Gross pay as per the Schedule 1 lists, and pay you the remainder as a salary.

With regards to the month off and all of this. In the eyes of the revenue, if you are working 100% of your time with one company, you are classed as employed by them.
The brookfield contract states that you are signing a 5 year contract, for 12 months of a year, and you are not allowed to work for any other company durring this period. This effectively means that for 100% of your working time, you are working for Brookfield.
If you have done contract work with other companies before in aviation or any other field, then you might find that these contracts are generally for a period of 6-12 months, after which you re-sign an extention or something similar.
Now, as far as it is understood, durring this month off, you are not allowed to work for anyone else. By all accounts, you are removed from the BRK books, as so it looks like you are only now employed for 11 months of the year.

There does seem to be a bit of a problem when you start looking at the way the contract is worded and constructed. You have to be Self employed or a Ltd company. Supposedly in that case, YOUR company is providing the service to BRK, as you the pilot actaully works for your own company and not for BRK, (as mentioned; - "The pilot will not be deemed to be an officer or agent, employee or servant of the Hirer or the Contractor"), however, the contract is worded in such a way that it is talking about YOU the pilot, and not YOU the company.

Fair dinkum,please continue.

Wait, but there's more!
 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

There's a lot more to working as a Brookfielder than just issues about taxes and Ltd's and that weird full-month-off thing. Like for instance: as a Brookfield pilot, you are TREATED by Ryanair (which you DO NOT have a contract with, your contract is with BROOKFIELD) as a regular permanent employee in all matters of rostering and working conditions. You cannot go back to Brookfield and complain about anything except perhaps if they forget to pay you for something. So Ryanair is being very clever here, giving you all the disadvantages of being a contractor (no benefits of any kind, no paid leave, everything at your own expense, out-of-base flying assigned at last minute, etc), and the ony advantages of being a contractor are the benefits O'Leary hasn't yet found a way to screw you out of. Oh, and you have absolutely no one on your side if you ever find yourself in trouble of any kind at Ryanair. No one from Brookfield, no one from anywhere.

Pay
 

You are almost right.

Brookfield never 'forget' to pay. It just seems that apparently Ryanair dont ever pay them whenever the 12th of the month falls on a friday, sat, or sun. Obviously this means that someone is gaining a few extra days of interest on a few hundred thousand Euro that should have been divided up into pilot bank accounts.
The funds should arrive in your account on 12th of every month. If that falls on a weekend, BRK have a duty to make that money available in your account before or on the contracted pay date. Your financial dealings are not with FR, it is BRK. For that reason, BRK are the ones liable for paying you the owed amount. If you contact FR in relation to this, they will tell you that it is nothing to do with them, and contact BRK.

There are not two ways about it. If you are contracting your services to BRK as a Ltd company and operating in that manner, you have certain rights, as well as responsibilites. Your company has the right to remove those pilot services from BRK until payment is retrieved in full. You also have the right to sell debt onto a debt collection agency. (I wonder how that would go down with BRK when a debt collector turns up at the door of the office). However, attempting to follow through on these rights will more then likely end up in the fact that your company service's are no longer required.

Unfortunately, unlike if you are actaully employed, BRK can terminate your contract and then hire someone immidiately to fill your position, and there is nothing really you can do about it. If you were fully employed, this would obviously not be allowed, and there would be all sorts of leagal issues. (This all starts getting into employment law).

You are not alone. You can join either IALPA, BALPA, or IPA, (Independant Pilots Association). All of these organisations can offer help and advice, but as they are not recognised by FR, they can not fight your corner within the company negotiations area. Having said this, even if they were recognised by FR, you don't work for FR, so your terms and conditions would not be altered.

Once again a thread on Pprune seems to be getting unnecessarily long and complicated. I am a BRK pilot operating for Ryanair and I've never not been paid. Yes, mainly I don't get paid on 12th of the month but at the very latest it's 16th and that's only when weekends get in the way.

I'm not going to defend Ryanair or Brookfield as the contract is very much in their favour, but I'm pleased to have a job and get a very nice regular income from it. The unpaid month is not ideal but as long as you budget throughout the rest of the year it shouldn't be a problem.

Regarding late payment and employment law and debt-collection agencies....come on! If I was a self-employed plumber or builder and sent an invoice which got paid 3 days late I wouldn't start sending lawyers to their doorstep! Nor would I as a Brookfield pilot as if I did I'm sure it would have negative consequences...all for the matter of 2 or 3 days!

Chill out, relax and be happy to have a job which is well paid in the current climate. I would understand your point if everyone was a month behind on payments...but to the best of my knowledge that's nothing like the case.

Skyflyer -

First off, I completely agree. You are not going to rock the boat for the sake of 2 days. All I am pointing out, is that you have different rights being a Ltd and Sole Trader.

Your comment about the weekend getting in the way of payment. Should the 12th have fallen on a friday, and you got paid on 16th, that means monday would have been 15th? Meaning the weekend cant have got in the way.
Anyway, I digress

There are people that on regular occasions that are missing very large amounts of money, and have to fight to get it paid. As BRK pay you an amount of money, and then tell you what work you have done, they are in effect giving you a statement. If money is then missing, it is up to you to prove that they actually owe you.
Now I also understand that they can't just pay you what you say you have done hours wise. There must be a cross-check, but as a statement is sent to BRK from FR detailing the hours worked by every contract pilot, why is this not forwarded on to the pilot before pay day inorder for inaccuracies and discrepencies to be checked and corrected before 12th-16th pay day?
As a sole trader / Ltd contract pilot, it is your responsibility to prove to HMRC, should you ever be investigated, how many hours you did, how much you got paid, and where the money has come from for the duration of the time that your accounts must be kept. Voyage reports are the obvious way to do this, but do you not ever find it strange that a computer system that tracks logging in and out, plus duty times and monthly schedule times manages to be incorrect for some reason when it comes to pay day?

An example of the sorts of where BRK are again taking advantage of young pilots because they know what sort of position they are in, and hat the current market unfortunately is an employers market in the aviation industry.
Should you look at the Schedule 1, it very clearly states when you reach the thresholds of JAR 25 hours, your pay increases. So, if things are being done correctly, when you reach 500.01 hours, then every hour subsequently should be invoiced and paid at the higher rate. Not the case. As BRK just pay you an amount, and i bet that none of it for the month in which you reach the threshold is paid at the Contract rate.
Hours have been calculated, and flights organised so that a pilot reaches this threshold at the begining of a calander month, so, effectively this means that you are doing a full months work at a lower rate. This could mean, (and with exchange rates as they are), 100 hours x 20 Euro = 2000 Euro. Now, that is well over £1500 which by rights is yours. Now this IS happening, and people should be aware of this.

As a company providing a service, you should invoice for the work you have done. This is also a requirement if you are VAT registered as BRk pay VAT in stirling, and pay in Euro. You should be able to request VAT in Euro but they will not do that becuase they don't want the hasstle of having to deal with international VAT. Further to this, you will never recieve your VAT before you have had to pay HMRC, meaning you will be a few thousand pounds out of pocket every few months.

To put it in perspective look at the Sky Europe thread where you will find they have just been paid for October, and "hope" to be paid soon for Nov
:eek: & they are full time employees.

In that respect working for Brookfield is a bit like having all your income paid as "regularly" as the full time guys sector checks. Normally more or less on time , occasionaly screwed up.
In terms of leave, you have been joined ,I hear, in your situation by Skavsta and Bergamo ( if they accepted) who recently voted to have 5/4 but had to accept 1 mths allocated A/L to get it, strange choice but they made it.
As you are paid up to a maximum of 900 (actual) hours (which of course can be a little more or less as you are paid scheduled) having a month off shouldn't change your income, in fact you should be better off, 1 mth less hotac etc for the "floaters". In any case 11mths is more than enough to do 900hrs so you shouldn't lose anything unlike the full time guys when they are given unpaid leave.

There is a clause mentioned above which seems to me to be plainly un-enforceable. You are a self-employeed person. This means you can choose who you provide services for, and when. You have the right to have more than one customer. Now BRK says you have to take 1 month off and are not allowed to earn money from any other aviation related business. How on earth can an agency dictate to a self-employed person in this way? Forget about still being able to do 900 hrs in 11 months. There is no guarantee of work. I even hear contractors are on SBY (= duty) for no pay. I really can not get my head around how anyone can defend such a position as prohibiting a self-employed person from earning a living however they choose.
No doubt if you rock the boat no work will come your way. I also hear you have to give a notice period of 3 months. Again, how on earth can a self-employed person, who has no guarantee of work, be required to give notice. To whom? You are working for your self.
Where's Flying lawyer?

I heard in the past that 1 (or more) countries had refused to accept the "allocated status" of self employed "requested" by Brookfields.
That may be hearsay, but it is a fairly thin veneer of respectability for the authorities to see through. A bit of a minefield really, and if someone was investigated`probably to their detriment more than that nice Mr Dooney.

:yuk::yuk::yuk::yuk::yuk: What a !!!!ty company. Get out of Ryanair or Easyjet. They are killing the profession with their reluctant terms and conditions. Open your books, study hard, then join a flag carrier :ok:

Good luck

Uh oh . . . :ooh: somewhere in deepest darkest France someone (who hasn't made the bridge between Thu holiday & Sat holiday ) has come home from work & found his key-board.

Put the key-board down nuageblanc, put the key-board down on the floor & walk away. . . . := Pleeeease

I'm sure that all flight crewmembers will heed your advise and turn in their resignations post haste by the close of business on Monday.:rolleyes:

Newbie... for some reason you have a major rager hard-on for both FR and EZ... two different companies with different T&Cs.

Live and let live... be employed and let those be employed... you'll be a happier cub scout.:ok:

Back to an earlier post by whistle blower, what are pilots in the UK being advised by accountants with regards to IR35 legislation and whether it is applicable with the brookfield contract? any feedback would be appreciated

What's a Captain's average Euro Salary per average month (average sectors etc) with Brookfield/Ryanair?

A few things to address.

Captains are earning around 138 Euro per hour, and most are working around 75 hours per month. Don't forget, on this much turn over, you would also have to be VAT registered. Try getting that out of BRK. They refuse to pay VAT monthly as they are supposed to. Payment is made quaterly, and that is only if the "Nice Mr Dooney" wants to send the cheque. Ask any VAT registered BRK pilot if they have payment for November yet!!

Going back to the "I even hear contractors are on SBY (= duty) for no pay". This is happening all the time. Some First Officers are working as little as 2 days out of a block of 5, ie, 2 days flying, 2 days standby, and 1 day allocated leave, then scheduled 4 days off. This effectively means 2 days in a 9 day cycle, and 6 days per month. You could be earning good pennies, (pennies being the word to focus on!)

With regards to working for any other aviation related organisation, or any other employment, you are correct in saying that this is an un-enforcable clause. The problem may come from the OPS manual at Ryanair, which states that you can not do any other work, and as per the BRK contract, you must follow the FR ops manual to the letter. So, here lies a small problem.
In the eyes of the revenue you would be classed as fully employed by Brookfield and liable to all the PAYE taxes and NI deductions, which if is enforced, then would be taken from your pay as per the clause in the contract.

IR35 is a ruling on how you run and pay yourself within a Ltd company. Check HMRC website for information.

How about a non flying post in aviation, say ground school instructor?

Many thanks

Nuage blanc,

Dude ! :eek: you're way out of line as pointed out more subtily by others.

Ryanair attitude toward pilots (contract or not) is appauling for sure. And toward everything else for that matter !

easyJet not at all to be compared. Far from it for that matter. So get a clue !

Fact of the matter: Ryanair ways lie among the durty, stinky, layers of the bottom of the aviation pile in europe IMO, and for a major airline...(I do not even look at what's going on in sky europe and others....:yuk:)

This puts unequivocal pressure on the rest sitting in the upper fresh layers of the said pile.

So nuageblanc, enjoy your Air France working conditions while they last. Fight for them, strike, do whatever it takes, because the good days are counted now.

VAT
 

I hear there are a few issues regards VAT payments at Brookfield at the moment. What I have heard is that BRK are refusing to pay the pilots because the Revenue is looking in to Brookfield's affairs.:confused:
I wonder if that is actually true, or just another way for Brookfield to not pay what is owed to the pilots working for them. My guess is the later.:(

The Revenue has a long standing issue with contractors. For the moment the issue of whether conractors are in fact employees of Ryanair is not being looked at but is is something that the tax office is aware of.

The issue at the moment is that Brookfield have done nothing to ensure the tax compliance of their contractors. Revnue are concerned that there are a large number of pilots that are not paying any income tax on their earnings from Ryanair.


The main concern that the revenue have at the moment is that they have no idea if the pilots are tax compliant or not. All that Revenue are looking for is that brookfield and to a greater extent the pilots clean themselves up.

How many contractors send invoices to brookfield every month? NONE. I have made tax returns for a few contractor pilots and have also claimed refunds for a few of the overseas guys. The lack of invoices or receipts on both sides is an issue. Brookfield are paying hundreds of contractors every month, each of whom is self employed and they don't get an invoice from any of them.

Brookfield look like they are cleaning things up.

They have stated in the new contracts that we are to account with one of 3 approved companies to ensure tax compliance. Each company has an agreement with Brookfield and they have a knowledge of the system and how things are done.

Nick

i would encourage people to go self assessment - register for VAT and do it alone

I would guess,although i dont know for sure, that Brookfield are getting a big golden handshake from these accountants for the business they will give them.Brookfield help nobody but themselves,if there is nothing in it for them then they would not recommend accountancy firms

Overpriced

STAY WELL CLEAR

Leeds,

We have no choice as it is written in the contract that they will only deal with us if we account with the selected firms to ensure that we all comply with the Irish tax laws.

Believe me I had it all planned and setup (which was a waste of time and money) really nice accountant who was friendly and realisticly priced, ah well....

Nick

Nick14

Could I suggest that you read and reread the Brookfield contract. If you look closely it does NOT require that you must use any of the accountants mentioned. A brief glance at the contract might suggest this but if you are only having a brief glance they you deseve to be ripped off. When you look at the wording it says otherwise. There is plenty of choice out there.

When you ask basic questions about how much experience some of these accountancy compaines have with Brookfield, Ryanair or contract pilots in general you might be surprised at what you will find out. For a company charging 3% of your annual turnover I would expect these guys to know the airline industry inside out. I can assure you this is far from the case. You have lots of choices out there Nick. Dont get ripped off by accountants, things are bad enough as it is

nick14
 

Whoever or what ever has told you that you must account with a particular company which is linked to Brookfield is talking rubbish. You can not be forced to account with anyone. If it clearly states that in your contract I would get that bit of paper and take it to an employment lawer before you even think about putting your name on it.

If you are self employed, you are not required to have an accountant. You can do all of your accounting and HMRC returns yourself.

I am not sure what Brookfield has to do with Irish Tax Law, as if you are working for a company, (i.e, yourself), you pay tax where your company is based and registered.

With regards to VAT, I have no idea about the Irish system, but here in the UK, you must charge it and it must be paid if you are VAT registered. How you offset it and pay the Revenue will fall under either the fixed rate or normal accounting systems. Either way, you MUST produce a VAT invoice that MUST be sent to Brookfield. This should be done every month, but Brookfield have made it clear that they will only pay VAT every quarter, (even though they are supposed to pay it monthly), and that will be once they have claimed thier VAT back from HMRC. This normally means that you as the pilot paying VAT to HMRC are out of pocket a few thousand pounds plus for at least a month.

Dealing with Brookfield is very difficult. Even though DD is the only person that you ever deal with, (as it seems no one else has the authority to fart without his say so), and there are only 7 odd people who work in the office, every time you talk to them about anything, it is being dealt with by someone else. Eventually though it always ends up being DD that tells you that it isnt going to happen.

Out of interest, what are the new contracts like. Have the pay rates all changed?

Brookfield
 

:8:8:8Hey guys, don't like the contract?

Don't sign it...stay on the dole....

I've done four (4) overseas contracts with Brookfield and have never, ever had a problem re:receiving my pay, or working conditions...

Quite the opposite...I can't get a job with them anymore because my experience is mostly on the B-727, although I am also typed on the 737...

Probably because too many folks are out there who have the right of abode are taking the slots to gain time and experience and not be greatful for the opportunity they're being offered.

Times have changed...go with it or stop your whining and find some other occupation...

By the way, David and Bernie, if you're out there, you know who I am, and as always, I'm still availabe....IMHO you are still the best contractors I've ever worked for....

Income tax in Ireland and the UK is paid under the self assessment system. This means that the tax payer is responsible for returning their taxes to Revenue. From a legal point of view then Brookfield simply can't make you use a specific accountant unless Brookfield are willing to indemnify you against any mistakes that the accountant might make. YOu are respnsible for filing the tax return so if the accountant fails to do it Revenue won't care. The bailiff will arrive at your door and not your back street accountant's.

Putting large amounts of money into a pension solely for tax planning purposes is a nonsense. Also you can assume that the maximum commission on each pension contribution is being taken by your "advisor".

A reputable frim should charge a fee on a flat rate basis. There is the same amount of work and administration involved for a captain as a cadet and they should both be charged the same amount for accountancy and tax advice.

This is from brookfield:

"It is Brookfield Aviations policy that we will only utilize the services of a pilot who is operating in a fully compliant manner, that can be verified by brookfield, in relation to their taxation status. Your contract obliges you declare your income in Ireland and your Ltd Company is responsible for paying Pay related Social Insurance and contributions and PAYE tax to the Irish Revenue Commissioners. You will need to contact one of a number of accountancy firms listed below who can manage your taxation affairs for you. These accountancy firms are acceptable to Brookfield on the basis that they have demonstrated an understanding of your needs to Brookfield. In order to make your first payment we will require confirmation from one of these accountancy firms that you have engaged them in the required manner.

It must be clearly understood that the accountancy firms listed below have no association with Brookfield and Brookfield can accept no liability for any losses which may be occasioned to you as a result of any actions or omissions by whichever accountancy firm you choose to retain."

So we must pay tax in Ireland and account with one of 3 firms or they won't deal with us, seems pretty cut and dry to me.

The pay rates have gone down slightyly yes:

35.5/sbh for line training
55.5/sbh for <500hrs
70.5/sbh for >500hrs
78.5/sbh for >1500hrs

Nick

So you pay your social insurance to the Irish, but if you are based away from Ireland, does the country where you are based know that you are not paying in to their system, how does this stack up?

The accountants send a form to the HMRC showing that we are paying tax in Ireland, something to do with the double taxation agreement between the EU countries??:confused:

Nick

How this will be working is the company will be registered in Ireland and will pay the corporation tax there. Your personal tax will then be organised and paid by your company out there. The Irish Revenue will then tell the UK Revenue that tax has been paid SOMEWHERE.

It does look like however there is now only the option of being a Ltd company, and no long Self Employed.

The problem is, what if you already had a Ltd company based in the UK. Brookfield can not force you to move that company, or wind it up, or start another.

DOWNIN3GREEN

I have no doubts that Brookfield could be good to work for on other contracts. The fact of the matter is, you bashing about in a 727 means that you have not worked for them in Ryanair. For some reason they show complete contempt for anyone who is assigned to FR. The reaeson you may have been paid on time working for someone else is that the company you were contracted to would pay on time. FR doesn't.

I suggest that you pay 25,000 Euro out of your own pocket, follow all the stupid restrictions and illegal rules and regulation that Brookfield try and enforce, and then go fly some line flights for a company that actually doesn't want to pay anyone. Then tell us that BRK/FR are amazing.

Quote:

It must be clearly understood that the accountancy firms listed below have no association with Brookfield and Brookfield can accept no liability for any losses which may be occasioned to you as a result of any actions or omissions by whichever accountancy firm you choose to retain."

Unquote

Nick14:

Well they do have an association with Brookfield....They have stated it in the contract that they are the only ones acceptable. Yes, they have you by the balls if you want a job...but I think you might find that the little indemnity that they have written into the contract for themselves wouldnt be worth the paper it's written on in a court of law.

On one hand they are saying that these companies are the only ones acceptable to Brookfield and they are saying on the other that they aint responsible if it all goes pear shaped.

Now, if you were a Judge in a courtroom what would you think if you had a guy being prosecuted for underdeclaring taxes etc and he presented you with a copy of the above statement? Do bear in mind that under European Competition Law that it is ILLEGAL to limit your right to chose who you use as a financial adviser/accountant or anything else for that matter. So not only do they become liable if your accountant/financial adviser screws up but a little call to the competition authority might generate more than a little interest! Me thinks that these individuals are trying to be too smart for their own good again! It's probably some piece that they cut and paste together thinking that all pilots are thick and that they would accept this tripe as Gospel!


Just Remember: IT'S NOT WORTH THE PAPER IT'S WRITTEN ON!

Furthermore, what you have quoted Nick is not in the contract. It is in the Frequently Asked Questions document which they send along with the contract. There is absolutely nothing in the contract which suggests you must use one of the accountants that they mention. Seems pretty cut and dry to me

Know what you are putting your name on!!
 

Nick,

This is the kind of thing that you really need to be vey careful of. What IS in the contract and what you THINK is in the contract are very different things. Make sure you read what you are ACTUALLY signing.

It is not Brookfield's responsibility to ensure you are paying tax. If your Ltd Company chooses to break the rules, they are not responsible.

That is like saying if you hire a builder to do some work on your house, and he faulters on his tax liabilities, you as the person that has hired him to fix your roof would be in trouble.

The only reason that BRK are getting all worried about this stuff is because they are not doing things quite as they should, and they don't want HMRC looking into thier business goings on.

Anyway, no matter how you look at it, if you are a Ltd company, and are only working with BRK, and you have no other income from any other contracts, you are employed by them. The fact that your contract states very clearly that you can not operate any other aircraft shows that you are under BRK control 12 months of a year, regardless of if they take you off their books for that month "Unpaid Leave" to try and satisfy the rules.

(If you have ever worked for a temp agency doing factory work for instance, you will notice that no where in the contract you will have signed with them does it say that you can not work anywhere else).

True,

Im not trying to argue with you at all, im merely looking for some advice as I and many others are in this situation.


It is from the FAQ and there is nothing that says in the contrac that we must account with the 3 chosen companies.

It says we shoud have a ltd company registered in Ireland and pay Irish tax. Further to this in the FAQ is gives us a rundown of what is required to contract through brookfield and get paid, accounting with one of the companies provided is a requirement.

What would you do? Kick up a fuss?:confused:

Nick

Nick,
It is important to remember that persons offering you advice on a forum such as this are anonymous and may be totally unqualified to offer such advice. Some of it seems very good but how can you distinguish the genuine from the mischievous or just plain daft? Even people describing their own experience may be serving some agenda other than your best interest. It is not unknown for FR management to contribute to these forums with the express intent of misleading pilots. I suggest that you contact your union for advice. At the very least, they can warn you if any of the accountants stipulated by Brookfield are in any way unsavoury.

The companies are named in the Ryanair Cadet contracts thread in Interview jobs and sponsorship forum. Im sure no one is willing to put themselves at risk by naming them here.

Its a business I guess, everyone is trying to make the most money they can.

Nick