PPrune, particularly on these threads, offers a great opportunity to provide a balanced perspective on airlines such as Emirates. However, the majority do not post. The minority, such as LHR Rain and a few others (maybe a maximum of 10) provide the majority of the input which takes any balance there was out of it.
The implication here (and by others) is that those who are unhappy are a vocal minority. Until a scientific and statistically valid poll is done here (yeah right), I guess there won't be proof but I'll have to say that my sense of the general mood here is one of very widespread discontent.
As far as whether the changes made have been contractual, for the most part, GN is technically correct. Even so, it is a specious argument. If you change the conditions under which people work for the worse, they will not like it. If you do it often, they will really be angry and will begin to leave. In my 10 years here, I have had "contractual items" changed with no recourse available on my part. The fact is that Emirates uses these so called "non-contractual" issues as selling points in their recruitment and then cries foul when people complain upon their change. At the very time when the company was making an unprecedented and unilateral increase in pilot productivity, they reduced the actual pay that pilots receive for increased productivity. Now they act surprised that people are angry. The complete and utter lack of understanding of the human element is the reason that morale is low, staffing (recruitment and retention) is in peril and the sobriquet, "Emmental Airlines" is in danger of becoming more than just a clever passing remark.
Our managers are in denial right now as to the extent of our problems and unfortunately, our corporate culture - one of fear, intimidation and shoot the messenger - shows no signs of changing that. Don't be too hard on GN; he has simply done what any successful manager in an expat culture does. He identified the quickest and easiest path for his own advancement with little or no regard for the long term implications to the organization or to the people that make up the organization. That the company chooses to encourage and reward such efforts is not his fault. The really chilling part about all of this is that the culture that has lead us to this situation - the slavish devotion to cost over quality, the intense centralization of authority that deprives middle managers of any ability to affect meaningful solutions, and the belief that the line employees are simply an impediment to the management running a really slick little operation - shows no sign of changing. This is why I and others no longer see a long term future working for this company.