Overseas bases for joiners??? If they really want to park aircraft somewhere in the desert (won't be DXB since no space for that), that's exactly what they should do. I for one would resign straight away...
On a more positive (?) note, I don't think it will ever happen. These Arabs are so greedy that they want you to spend your hard earned cash in Dubai, so as long as they think that way, it's probably better to give a payrise, which will eventually end up in their own pockets again anyhow, then to ship their money out of the country. Also legal issues come to mind, what about social security etc for a Europe based Captain with a contract signed in Europe? What about certain employee rights civilised countries have, things they never heard about in the UAE? I don't think they would ever go that way... Best they probably will do is a shared roster/appartment as proposed a few months ago on te yahoo groups by one of out colleagues, enabling guys to commute.
MR8