Kapt:
I have a friend who flew Caravans and as F-27 First Officer for one of those companies.
By the way, he left his pilot career about two years ago, by choice.
And he is from another country. I can ask him to read Pprune and offer you some information. 'His' company often did not use seniority to upgrade pilots. They hired some outside guys to put into some Captain seats. First year Captain pay was much cheaper.
It was cheaper for the company and he became so disgusted with the management slime (Schleim) at his company that he began a quite different career.