If a contract says, "You are employed as Captain..." then I doubt it would take much of a lawyer to prove that if you were asked to operate as a First Officer then this is outside the remit of your contract
I was under the impression that the title of our job was 'Pilot' - My ATPL (with attendant type rating etc) is no different in any respect than that of the Pilot sitting beside me in the flight deck.
The titles 'Captain' and 'First Officer' are mererly honourific, allocated according to a particular requirements of the company and within the protocol arranged, in the main, by fellow pilots.
Far too many people attaching far too much sigificance to a job title.
To all those huffing and puffing about the difficulties/dangers of flying with a pilot with actually vastly
more experience than those with whom they are usually happy to fly with:
If you have been asked to do something by your employer which you do not believe is safe, I hope you will refuse to operate, as you would rightly expect of any professional in such a situation.
If you do operate under such conditions yet still continue complain on an internet chatroom, rather than to any number of more appropriate and qualified, authorities (who, if your argument is valid, will surely put a stop to this right away), about how unsafe the whole affair is, then one is sailing very close to shores of hypocrisy..!
So the company now don't need so many FOs, since they can cover both seats with just Captains on SBY?
Well, if standby cover is to remain at the same(adequate, but minimum) level without sacrificing the crewing level of the rest of the fleet, that means in fact they need to promote FOs, not work Captains harder. So oughtn't those opposing this concept on industrial grounds really be in favour?