neilki
This is not specific for easyjet, but as it is one of many transnational airlines in europe, something that the US doesn't have, any comparison is somewhat moot. Working laws differ all over europe and in many of those a simple seniority based order of dismissals is not legal as other factors have to be taken into account, like social situation for example.
I was in the unfortunate situation to have to get to know the german system quite intimately in the past, and there we have very strict rules. For example jobs have to be directly comparable, and that means that one employee has to be able to do the job of another employee without any training, which means first officers and captains are different jobs according to the law and each has to have its own order of dismissal. For each group of employees there are four criteria that have to be taken into account, length of service, age, support obligations and handicapped status (yes, that affects pilots as well, being a diabetic is enough to be officially handicapped and therefore specially protected). Those criteria have to be weighted and a compensation plan has to be negotiated, which can take up to a few months if done right.And even then every employee can sue the company for unlawful dismissal which can take another few years, and has a quite high chance of being won by the employee. So any dismissal has to be done very carefully by the company or they have a huge legal risk.
That said, i wonder how much salary easyjet actually pays currently to their german employees, under short work rules the government pays 60% (67% with kids) of the employees salary, which goes up to 70% (77%) after three months and after another three months up to 80% (87), based on maximum €6.900. That is limited currently until the end of this year, but it is extremely likely that that will be extended until the end of 2021. If easyjet doesn't pay them anyway because the government does, why not just keep them officially employed and have qualified personnel once demand picks up?