Same story at the Hong Kong carrier I used to work for. They initially refused to introduce commuting rosters, so all the expats started to leave once they had a better offer, and few qualified pilots wanted to join on their roster terms. So they were ultimately forced to recognise they had no choice, and they introduced a limited 'lifestyle roster' (refused to call it a commuting roster so they could avoid having to subsidise or provide tickets). They did of course reduce the pay, and they also reduced the already sub standard Annual Leave. However they did not pro-rata the flying hours! They just worked the commuters harder and got the same productivity as the full timers. Believe it or not that suited many of the commuters because flight pay was an element of salary, so those guys wanted to 'make up their hours' to compensate for the pay deduction. It resulted in the worst of both worlds for those who didn't want to kill themselves with work. Great deal for the company though....you had to wonder why they resisted the idea so long. It's all about control really, that's all.