easyJet/CTC Cadet Pilot Slavery Contract
 

In the last few days I have become aware of an outrageous deal between easyJet and CTC. This contract is akin to slavery and has been offered within the last week to CTC cadets who have finished their ATPLs and are swimming in the hold pool awaiting a type-rating. They have had less than a week's notice and had to accept on the spot for a start date today (14/12/2009). I have had to wait to have a number of independent verifications before publishing, but these are the bare bones:


easyJet will no longer pay for type-ratings for their cadets. Instead, they require any CTC cadet who wishes to work for them to sign a 3-year contract. The contract involves the candidate paying for his own Airbus type rating at a cost of £28k. The contract only basically pays the cadet if he flies, and there is no guarantee whatsoever of minimum hours. They are saying a cadet can expect to fly 650 hours but there is no guarantee that will be the case. Therefore, for example, if in year 3 they do not need him to fly then he will just not be rostered and will not receive a penny in pay. At the end of the contract there is no guarantee whatsoever of future employment. Indeed, it would be reasonable to assume that there is a virtual guarantee of being kicked out on the street with nothing to make room for the next lucky candidates. Of the £28k type rating cost, £4k must be paid up front. The other £24k is borrowed from easyJet/CTC and paid back over 3 years. If the cadet leaves before 3 years, the £28k must be paid back in full. During type-rating training, pay is £500 per month. Thereafter the pay is £1200 per month with no flight pay up to the 6 month mark. After that you get paid £48 an hour (presumably block hours) with £20 an hour deducted to go towards TR cost (ie £28/hour clear). I believe, but cannot verify, that once the outstanding £24k is paid you stop paying for the type rating rather than continue paying anyway for 3 years, but there is a question even about that. On 650 hours it will take about 2 years to pay off the type rating. Adding these figures up mean that the salary for a CTC cadet flying 650 hours per year will be as follows:

Year 1: Approx £15k

Year 2: Approx £18,200

Year 3: Approx £31,200 (assuming you have paid off your TR costs and that they keep you flying)

Also, the salary does not cover loan repayments. Most CTC cadets have loans of around £60k to cover training and I am told payments are around £1000 a month. That means that a cadet literally cannot afford the loan payments in the first year yet alone pay for food, accommodation or a pair of socks to wear.

However you dress this up, this is a grotesque abuse of young pilots and constitutes the worst terms and conditions that I am personally aware of in the history of commercial jet aviation in the UK.

As a long-term wannabe myself, this makes me sick... I have always heeded advice on here and very rarely post on such subjects as i prefer to let the pro's do the talking (WWW et al) but this is just beyond belief...

Looking on other forums, wannabe cadets much younger than me believe that if you get on CTC Wings you've 'got it made', no one can tell them any other as you will 'shatter their dreams'. I wonder how long before such practice becomes illegal?

Coincidently, a guy i have known since school came up to me the other day, bragging about being offered a place at CTC with a view to being taken on by Emerites?! Wasnt aware CTC provided lambs for them to slaughter (though pretty sure they are a good airline), worst thing is this guy, far as i know, has no interest in flying other than the status he believes he will get... Is this what the intergrated schools are churning out these days? :ugh:

I think i will stick to my guns, listen to my very good PPL instructor and do all of my flying in the UK as and when i can afford it, thats if i decide to go into this business and not just fly for fun on a PPL.

Maybe people will realise that flying as a profession is finished.Getting out of bed at 4a.m. to fly 4 sectors with no food,interline,pension,night stops,flying a 737 or 319 for the rest of your days,living the dream!Do yourselves a big favour go work in Tesco ,at least you will have some dignity left.Don't line the pockets of modern day mill owners like Stavros and the Irish git!

Seriously?

Wow.

You've got to be pretty thick to accept something like that. There is simply no logical reason for a rational person to sign a contract like that.

I mean, being desparate for a job doesn't even come into it, at that kind of money, even in a deep recession. You have to remember that these are people who committed to their training after Northern Rock went bust.

I don't actually see what's wrong with stuff like this. Paying punters get cheap and mostly fairly safe flights for their holidays. Dreamboats who think they'll look cool in a pilots uniform get to think they look cool in a pilots uniform and airline owners get to make profit.

There are far better ways of earning a living for anyone with a typical pilots intellect.

I feel sorry for the old guys though - those who are too old to change careers. But then no career is for life these days.

Everyone who has been offered this contract signed up to this scheme long before northern rock went bust, and when times were good, loans were unsecured, and this was the best ticket in town. Do you think people would have signed up for this program knowing this would be the outcome?!? Well, the sad thing is they would and they are, but those of us in the pool did not, and are pretty sick at the state of things compared to where they were when we started and what we signed up for.

You say there is no rational reason to accept this contract, but the only rational reason I can think is that you just spend two and a half years of your life working your butt off for this opportunity, and during that time, T's and C's have eroded to this level. And this is now your ONLY choice! There are no other jobs, no instructor positions, no entry level turbo prop jobs... this is it. And the jobs we left to make this happen have also suffered the effects of the economy and are no longer there for us to go back to... so your choice is simple, go bankrupt at tesco or go bankrupt flying the plane you spent years working towards and a life time dreaming about.

Having said that, I do not think I would sign up for this. Not good at all:bored:

Is this scheme still running?

I mean in the same or similar manner to how it was a couple of years ago? It seemed to depend heavily on generous terms from a bank, which in turn must have depended on reliable payments coming back from the qualified CTC guys. I imagine that that has become a problem.

And does anyone want to sign up for this amount of debt/risk in the current climate?

Not a critique of CTC, just interested.

CC

Loans now have to be on a secured basis. Your or your parents house etc, via BBVA bank I believe. Or one could be of independent means...

CTC run regular, well attended, recruitment events and have never stopped sending new cadet pilots out to New Zealand. Some of those swimming in the resultant pool at the end are growing quite weary. Understandably.


WWW

There is gross over-supply of young hopefuls therefore airlines and training organisations are determinedmined to make them pay for their own training and TR whilst giving no guarantees. The lesson is clear. The party is over, for now at least. Don't become a commercial pilot. Do (almost) anything else.

At least their balpa subs will be cheap.

Cheers Norman, not that they could do anything as we wont be employed by anyone. We are literally an appliance to them, we have a use and when a better, cheaper to run one comes along we will be discarded or sold on to someone with a need that can't afford the 'training relationship'.

Hmmmm choice choices:

1) Accept the deal, go bankrupt on day one of type rating and then your training has only cost you £28K instead of £70k. Nice but you then contribute to the massive demise of T&C's throughout the entire aviation industry as the race to the bottom goes nuclear.

2) Don't accept the deal. Your mate does and you go bankrupt anyway and you still don't have a flying job (good luck finding one at the moment!). Although you can then start again and join a profession where there is a chance of a real career!

If this comes into pratice we are all screwed. This will affect everyone starting from the bottom up. It will have an impact whoever you work for and whatever you fly.

We....need.....to.....stop.....this. The guys this affects cannot fight their corner. We need to do it for them. We just cannot afford to sit idly by and let this happen.

It seems BALPA aren't interested in it. These guys/girls are the future of the industry and they are being left out to dry by both BALPA, CTC and easyJet.

Shame on BALPA if they let this continue. I would like to see them stand up for this.

It makes me so so angry I work for an airline that can treat it's 'future' like this at the outset. This will be the precedence for other airlines. You watch.

easyJet send current pilots safety missives saying 'don't come to work with things on your mind', then recruit a load of new F/O's who can barely afford to make ends meat on a draconian contract which benefits 2 people. Them and CTC. CTC will no doubt do the type rating for which they are not paying anywhere near 28K. That was what CTC used to bill easyJet for each cadet at the end of the 6 month period on contract offer.

Now it seems easyJet have turned around and said they aren't paying that, so guess what, CTC have passed that onto the 'customer'. Where else in the world can you spend that much money and be treated like such a child. Why don't CTC charge cost or take a hit on the profits?

Safety is easyJet's number 1 priority, when it doesn't cost too much.

One day they will learn the very hard way if they continue on this cost cutting drive and there will be a media storm over this and everything else. You watch...

But we do!!

"During type-rating training, pay is £500 per month. Thereafter the pay is £1200 per month with no flight pay up to the 6 month mark. After that you get paid £48 an hour (presumably block hours) with £20 an hour deducted to go towards TR cost (ie £28/hour clear). I believe, but cannot verify, that once the outstanding £24k is paid you stop paying for the type rating rather than continue paying anyway for 3 years, but there is a question even about that. On 650 hours it will take about 2 years to pay off the type rating. Adding these figures up mean that the salary for a CTC cadet flying 650 hours per year will be as follows: Year 1: Approx £15k Year 2: Approx £18,200 Year 3: Approx £31,200 (assuming you have paid off your TR costs and that they keep you flying)"

Does anyone know if you get sector pay on top of these figures, once you're out of the 6 months line experience? That could add another £5k a year which makes it look a little less stark...

Unrealistic ambitions.....
 

Oh dear, oh dear. Flybe, Eastern, Highland etc have all been recruiting over the last 18-24 months. Flybe recently took on another 16 guys ex-Jerez. They won't pay for their rating and I think may have been part-sponsored. They'll certainly be paid more than the above scheme, with a proper contract, a pension, proper staff travel and the prospect of TP command or RHS medium jet in just three-four years. It ain't perfect but it ain't CTC.

The misguided notion, fed to ab-initios, that they can expect to complete their training and go straight to the RHS of an A320/737 is, in part, to blame for this scramble to the bottom. Direct RHS seat of a medium jet has always been for the minority of ab-initios, NOT the majority. Flying schools, blinkered wannabes and plentiful credit have not helped our industry.

It is sheer madness. I am sorry, but how are you suppose to support a family, Pay bills,live and pay your training costs back? It shocks me when I hear people brandishing figures round for TR.....It's only another 30K :eek:. I am sorry 30k is a lot of money to me...or should I say a lot of work to pay it off!!!

Also, I sincerely hope easyJet pilots and the easyJet CC, invoke a meaningful and effective response to this. As muted on another forum - the refusal to fly with any pilot on this "contract" could benefit industry T&Cs and the unfortunate, broke FO who might be put on a reasonable contract as a result.

A stand (last stand methinks) must be taken.

The problem is, if you put the cadets on a decent salary, you will only attract more. For those who want this pay-your-way-into-a-jet nonsense to stop this is good news. BALPA and the easy crews on 'I'm alright jack' contracts will do nothing to stop this. They will moan and groan, but do nothing. They will commiserate the poor unfortunates when they are serving tea to the flight deck whilst working as cabin crew, but do nothing. If I'm wrong I'll happily eat my hat.

The only way this will stop is when the greedy slave traders at easy/CTC make things so bad that people stop training this way, and/or cannot get finance. Unfortunately, I think there will still be plenty of starry eyed youngsters and proud mums and dads to make this latest nonsense a goer.

In what other industry do companies take on inexperienced people when there are plenty of highly qualified and unemployed workers around?

How true is this old poem of the aviation industry today. Everyone is too busy saving their own skin to give a toss about anyone else.

Dear ladies and gentlemen,


I am sorry for you CTC cadets, but nobody forced you to go and sign with your pay to fly scheme in New Zeland!!!! You wanted to get a job directly from the flight school straight to an A319 at easyjet with no experience whatsoever, just by PAYING. :ugh:

And now you are crying :sad:

Cadets at Ryanair and easyjet are the cancer of the aviation. You are paying the bill yourselves guys! ;)

Let us be absolutely clear about this - BALPA are most definitely interested in what is going on. They are locked into major conflict with the company on a whole host of issues and this is merely an attempt to outflank BALPA and effectively keep low-houred easyJet pilots outside of their protection. Both CTC and easyJet managers are increasingly ruthless in their attempt to destroy the power of the pilots. I invite the numerous union-haters on these forums to watch with alarm what a world without union protection at easyJet would look like.

In the last few days, I have significantly hardened my position, and wish that to be known. I had hoped that maybe Andy Harrison et al had learned the importance of dealing well with their employees. Somehow there is a disconnect in their thinking and they imagine that if they say they want easyJet to be 'a great place to work' that it will magically become so without any changes. They think that if they destroy the lives of people joining the company and just say soothing words to current pilots, then all will be well and no one will notice something is wrong. These people are without conscience and are aligning themselves up for major industrial strife. I personally cannot sit back and watch deals like this being offered and remain silent. This is straight back to the days of gin parlours and young children dying on the streets of London, Liverpool and Glasgow. Given the massive debt incurred in getting a flying licence in the first place, and the associated monthly payments, this is poverty on a plate. It would not be possible to physicaly buy crumbs to put in your mouth on this 'salary' and still pay your loan. I hear that a number of CTC cadets are about to go bankrupt as the only means available to them to be free of debt. This is the lunatics running the asylum - how can such a situation be acceptable in terms of flight safety and alone? I have reticent up to now to go for strike action - that situation has changed for me since I became aware of this easyJet/CTC deal. This is the final straw for me that showed we are dealing with moral bankrupts who simply have to be confronted. There are many legalities to be resolved here and this will not be easy. Nonetheless, I trust that even the most head-in-the-sand BALPA member can see the clear and present danger to every single pilot at easyJet. We simply have to confront this insane situation, plus all the other issues like B-scales, European contracts etc. There is no doubt that Training Captains like me have an acceptable deal, but that is no longer the issue for me. I cannot sit back and watch my colleagues face these attacks and do nothing to assist. I will therefore do whatever our union representatives require to see this through to an accpetable conclusion. I trust that many others will join me.

If CTC really cared about their cadets and their integrity/reputation they would at least subsidise the cost of the TR, if not pay for it completely. I always thought this was the case, I didn't realise eJ use to pay them for each cadet at the end of their 6 months.

If i read this correctly, a cadet now pays £70k + for basic and intermediate training, even though CTC always implied the TR was included as well. £70k for 100 hours SE and 50 odd ME seems slightly ridiculous to me.

Someone has already stated, this is a safety issue, malnourished and worried pilots do not make for good CRM. Perhaps the CAA should be getting involved, suspend CTC from training until this is resolved, maybe that would make them sit up.

apologies in advance for what is probably a lengthy pose, but just some observations from my experience, having come through a cadet type scheme some years ago.

what a sad state of affairs!!! but i hear people saying "well its the only sniff of a job we will get this coming year" .... true, but you have to take a long term view of this industry - the golden years are gone!!

until people wanting to get into the industry (wannabes) realise that there is no glamour, very little job security, early career pay is appalling whereas if you get a proper degree you can get into most other industries which have far more attractive T&C's, and most importantly, the burden of debt which you will have when you start your flying career will be crippling financially to you for atleast the next 5 - 10 years....until they realise this there will be an endless queue of people outside the door of CTC thinking they have found the backdoor into the promised land. but unfortunately the industry is on its knees, and thanks to the low cost operators who have made flying accessible to all, it is us, at the front of the aircraft who are having to give up T&C's to keep ticket prices low.

people might think, lets use EZY as a career step, get a TR and some hours and move onto a proper airline, the problem is by EZY starting this sort of a scheme others will follow, so there wont be many proper airlines left! what is stopping EZY from starting the same scheme again in 2011? why pay guys/gals an hourly rate in their 3rd year, when they can take on a bunch of new people who they wont have to pay much to for their first 2 years....what happens to the people who joined this year ?!?!?!? what extra burden to the trainers ?

unfortunately BALPA should have outlawed paying for your own TR years ago when the schemes first started and they should have a minimum salary table for each type of aircraft. look at train drivers, tube drivers, GP's etc they have very strong unions who effectively have their employers by the short and curlies...whats the result ... every year train fares increase ... unlike the fares in our industry !!! the result being the commuter pays for the drivers salary increase, whereas us at the front of the aircraft take a paycut to subsidise the punters down the back to go on even cheaper holidays ...what a bizarre world we live in !!!

my advice, become a lawyer, GP or even a train driver, more favourable student loan arrangements (theres a surprise) better T&Cs better job security!

Norman

This pay for your training and maybe get a job has been around a long, long time.

Midland, another BALPA airline, were doing this on the quiet way back in the mid 90s when things were slack and they excess sim and training capacity: they sold lots of 737 TRs to youngsters with the vague and very loose carrot of "there is a job for you with a 737 TR".

Lots of youngsters shelled out for a 737 course only to find he 737 job wasn't with Midland!

Did keep the Midland sim busy though!

All very interesting as discussions are as to whether or not you should have become a train driver or lawyer or indeed about what BALPA could have, should have or did not do in the past, they are completely irrelevant to the current situation. What matters is what we are going to do now. I understand that there is a lot going on behind the scenes between BALPA and the company as we speak. I wait with interest to see what appears.

Remember going to CTC in the early days to do some stuff for my Easy command course and talking to guys with about 100hrs tt who were telling me about their s.a. etc!Sad part is not BALPA but the fact this was set up by pilots(ex Brittania) who ,having had a full career ,never having paid a bean for their flying and with big index linked pensions decided to screw the next generation....nice.We are as a profession our own worst enemies ,just hope they dont teach their wonderful fuel policy.

Couldn't agree more. I really don't care about the past when it comes to the issues we are facing. We can either bitch and moan about Balpa's previous impotency or actually do something ourselves and put a stop to a developing situation that is quickly resembling a crime to humanity. The new proposed contract will result in cadets' becoming increasingly financially destitute. It is up to all ezy pilots to act together because we will all be contractors by the end of the next decade if we do nothing. The rot is setting in from the bottom. If the company cannot afford to pay the cadets or does not feel they warrant a proper contract, then they shouldn't employ them. Balpa is just a negotiating tool, it is down to us all to act cohesively and actually stand up to the exploitation that is going on under our noses. We have the best people in our Company Council to negotiate on our behalf, what they require is our complete backing.

You don't say!
About time. But I still don't think anything will happen.
In other words, any attempt to resolve things will be buried in committee meetings, and, guess what - NOTHING WILL HAPPEN.

Why can you not demand that easy suspend the relationship with CTC immediately, along with any pay-to-fly schemes, sub-contracts, etc, or strike action will follow? They will not cave in to a barrage of hot air NSF.

Someone has to pay for offering a return at 5€ incl tax...
 

http://www.pprune.org/terms-endearme...mps-happy.html

That s all crap... You are right saying that pay to fly is the cancer of aviation. It s unfortunately too late now.

Worst Wishes for the low cost.

Norman,

Glad you heeded my advice of last week, unfortunately this "scheme" is all part and parcel of a wider economic plan on a far grander scale.
Credit/ buy your own job/buy your own house/ sell your granny . . . it is the easiest way for govts to control the masses.
Keep everyone in debt, on a short term contract, paid only when/if they work, a governmental dream. Everyone so sh1t scared they won't say Booh!

This fantastic "scheme" is just a reflection of the cancer that is eating every industry in every country.
We are all slowly but surely becoming psuedo-chinese, no rights no opinions, shut up and work or die on the streets.
That is where the wonderful state of Europe is headed, and it ain't accidental.
We can fight our own little battle here, but the big picture is the same all around us.
Vive le revolution ! it's about time.

There are a lot of very, very brave words being thrown around here but I can predict from my past experience that words are all that will be thrown around.

I will be astonished if anything material is actually done and I can also just about bet a year's salary that BALPA will achieve anything more than the square root of FA. Why should they? There is nothing in it for them.

Just so easy isn´t it? to come in here and spout the cynical view. Nothing will ever happen, bla bla bla look at me I am so clever, so cynical.... Guess what? the conditions that we all enjoy where fought hard by those before us, 30 years ago we also had people that stood to the side making wisecracks, excuses for themselves. They where ignored.

I am now willing to fight all the way not to have our pilots sleeping in their cars at the airport, turning up to work exausted and worried only to fly 65tons of metal fuel and people into a hill. You are too busy admiring your navel? just get out of the way so others can get on with doing the dirty work for you.

trss and leo/mol are using these forums bashing balpa so as to discourage the pilots in ruinair from joining a union.
This is leo's biggest fear and he does whatever he can, like threaten with base closures,bashing balpa on these forums, etc to prevent a union from materializing in his company.
The other one is just his servant echoing his master at every opportunity, hoping for a crum to be thrown at him.

I think Double the Drift has hit the nail on the head. From the perspective of a CTC hold pool swimmer, of course.

And assuming that it's all correct, too. I haven't heard anything from CTC about it - no surprise there.

Who was it that said those we criticise are only what we would be under similar circumstances? So the question is how to change the circumstances... not sure I know the answer to that one either.

"cadets, sorry you got suckered into the whole debt thing but now if you don't mind please turn down that lifeline job offer that will suck you dry but will, after a few years, leave you qualified and able to get on with your career."

As a cadet in the hold pool I agree with that statement. To us it seems its either take what you can get with the possibility of it leading onto more, or turn down the opportunity and have it given to the next one in line. A rock and a hard place I believe is the phrase!

If you don't like the conditions then quit....quit flying. Conditions are only going to get worse. Balpa isn't going to do crap. You are preaching to the choir when you say conditions are terrible. OK, what's new?

If only it were that easy, most CTC cadets are now at a point where financially they will have to take whatever lands on the table or face the possibility of bankruptcy or quite possibly both if everything is to be believed!

And the whole you deserve what you get I did my time in a 152 attitude helps nobody. There are plenty of cadets at CTC who would have gone the long route (me included) but at the time of joining CTC the opportunity was there to get it all done quicker and easier so we took it - saying we deserve what we get will help nobody and is completely undeserved.

That seems to be the underlining idea lpokijuhyt.

CTC will get a reduced Holding pool through accelerated "natural wastage" which is desirable going forward.

The Cost & productivity savings at EZJ LN are obvious.

All this while they have a TRSS pool full of experienced TP skippers. A mate of mine has been swimming for 18 months, and knows full well he won't end up in an orange airbus anytime soon, unless he bends over and thinks of England. And at wages like these no experienced person would go near them. Flight Safety case anyone?

I agree something needs to be done! Maybe a ban on short term contracts would help? I back NSF and wish him luck I hope something is achieved! But its interesting that the BA cabin crew are been slated with vitrol on this forum for doing exactly the same thing and standing up for there T&Cs! Its a strange industry and unless things change soon I think a career change driving a coach for National Express will be the more attractive option!

At the beginning of 2008 I was on a TR course for an airline along side of a number of CTC cadets. On asking them how big their loans were at this stage (so this will be real costs of the course including there own spending money) they all had £100K+. This excludes any type rating. So under this new contract, this will be an obscene investment.

I really would like to know if cadets are being forced into it.
If they all stood up united and said no then surely CTC and EJ should try and offer an improvement to the current proposed contract.

But I would suspect that some cadets will accept it while others rejected it to try and get ahead of the game, not realising in that selfish mindset that they are guilty in ruining it for everybody.

mint