Engineer,
Log on to the UK CAA website and look up the CAP371 and the Air Navigation Order. Much of emirates FTL rules are word for word the same as the UK, including rest reduction and FDP extension. There are two variations which are applied to certain flights which allow them to plan schedules outside the normal limits, but these also penalise the company by requiring extra rest post flight etc. An example is ICN-DXB which is a 2 crew looong night flt.
EKs worst crime so far has been the factoring of augmented ops flight hours when applied to 28day and annual limits. It was in force from Aug04-Mar05 b4 the GCAA apparently put a stop to it (there were a large number of fatigue related ASRs which highlighted the folly of it all). The company won in the short term as they could run an ultra long haul/ specific long range operation with less pilots and therefore save money. After factoring was gone we had a couple of months in limbo where pilots had no idea whether they could still factor or not. Many (meaning more than 100, but probably more like 200) guys had more than 900 non-factored hours and were uncomfortable coming to work due to legal exposure. The company didn't give a monkeys.
Finally in Jun05 they produced a 'policy' saying that although factoring was no longer in force, they would factor 'historically', in other words factor the hours from Aug04 - Apr05 when calculating annual hours (they gifted themselves the extra month). Miraculously this meant that no pilots were over the 900 annual limit, although many were over 1000 actual hours. The only problem is that the letter they produced outlining their new policy was a 'notice' not an 'instruction', which doesn't seem a big deal at first glance but the difference is that a 'notice' is not a powerful enough document to modify the Ops Manual. So many (>200 guys) are now flying outside the Ops Manual FDP limits AT THEIR OWN RISK. Everyone I talk to is burnt out.
Why do they need to resort to these devious stunts? If they didn't then a/c would be parked against the fence and mngmt heads would roll. Which is why I think the GCAA are quietly looking the other way on this one. Where does it leave the pilots? Exposed. Exposed to potentially ruinous litigation in the event of the smallest of incidents.
Uplock is right. Stand up for yourself here and you get punished. The best course is to update the cv and leave them to their fate.