It is worth pointing out that the demise of Aero Lloyd was of mutual benefit to both the former pilots of said company and easyJet. Many of those pilots found almost immediate re-employment with easyJet at a time when job in German aviation were not in plentiful supply. This was particularly good news for skippers who picked up direct-entry commands, as did a number of senior First Officers.
Regarding Cuffio's question, the short answer is that easyJet is probably one of the most genuine 'equal opportunities' employers in the world. That means that nationality, race, sex or religion gets you no advantages or favours ahead of someone else. We have people at all levels in the company who represent every colour and creed. I have worked for several airlines and have never come across such genuine openness to anyone who has the right to live and work in Europe. The downside is that, in keeping with that policy, no national pilot gets basing preference over a non-national. I can understand the frustration, for example, that a German national must feel waiting for a Berlin base - knowing that there could be 3 Brits and a Dutchman in front of him on the transfer list! Such is life - I personally much prefer our system to the sort of thing that goes on throughout Asia and the Middle East (Switzerland also they tell me!) where 'foreigners' are expendable commodities who can be binned at a moment's notice to protect the interests of the 'locals'. EasyJet is not a perfect employer and has many issues to resolve, but in this department I personally think they are faultless. I believe in calling a spade a spade but I also believe in giving praise where praise is due - in this case it seems to me that easyJet are acting entirely appropriately.
I would hope that former Aero Lloyd pilots would have nothing but gratitude to easyJet. There is no doubt that the appearance of large numbers of quality A320-rated pilots on the market enabled easyJet to set up the SXF and DTM bases. What they have to remember is that the demise of Aero LLoyd created the opportunity for easyJet in the first place. Without easyJet, however, the lot of the Aero Lloyd pilots would have been very different. The opportunities within Germany at that time were not great - particularly if you wanted a direct entry command. Furthermore, there are now many ex-Aero Lloyd First Officers who would still be in the right seat but are now Captains at easyJet. EasyJet pay great money, particularly with the tax status of our German-based colleagues, and not surprisingly there is a long queue of people wanting to be based in Germany. That is not a failing of easyJet but rather a sign of the success of our operation there. The Aero Lloyd demise was a good deal for easyJet and a good deal for the former pilots.
Finally, although springbok449 has moved onto bigger and better things, he has a wide and accurate knowledge of easyJet. Those who criticise his writings would be better just listening to what he has to say.