The jet that you flew back on although in TC livery is not owned by TC nor was it the operator. It is a jet which TC leased from Avion Express hence the reason why the CAA were permitted to charter its use for the repatriation exercise. Aircraft owned by TC are verboten re the exercise as their legal permissions to fly have been withdrawn, indeed some of them have even been impounded pending payment of outstanding bills. The CAA had been chartering and getting aircraft into position over the week before the official collapse announcement, it did not happen overnight and contingency planning will likely have been going on for some weeks at least.
Your repatriation aircraft will have been chartered from Avion Express by the CAA and ditto the crew under an ACMI arrangement. I would expect that the cabin crew would not be working for nothing and that they would be working on at least short term contracts given how the exercise is bankrolled. I'm not sure that rules and legalities would even permit any crew being used outwith a contract of employment and it is quite possible that the flight deck crew only might be salaried by AE and leased out with the aircraft.
If the on-board collection was to help TC crew who have been caught up in this while downroute then it does not seem unreasonable to me but I'm a bit puzzled as to the stated reason.
