Just to update prospective new joiners...
The company has agreed an improvement to the Long Haul rostering situation on a 1 year trial period. Key takeaways:
Minimum 3 days off after a longhaul trip (can be waived if you desire). This is designed to end the trip/2/trip/2 which we all found fatiguing towards the bottom of the list.
Slight reduction in CAP (up to 3hrs/month less).
Increase in golden days (advance notice day off) from 6 to 12 per year.
The cost to this is a tightening on the rules of where you can place golden days around other duties or leave, and putting ground duties inside reserve periods. Both of these "techniques" could be used to force the system to give chunks of days where you would not be usable which created inefficiencies that the company wants to address.
The hope is that these improvements reduce the sickness and fatigue rates while making the operation more predictable and efficient.