mensaboy you are way off the planet with your vitriol.
I am not a DEC, been here a long time and don't think DECs were the worst decision EK ever made. Hate the office, don't go there, and don't fancy any of their cavities. EK would not have been able to start without DECs, so it is little wonder that they still feel the need to utilize them occasionally.
I will stress the point to you "OCCASIONALLY". They have every right to employ DECs whenever they wish, in fact they could just drop all command courses and employ contract DECs with offshore bases or what ever.
You must have noticed by now that, that is not what they wish to do. They do actually put a lot of effort into making their own Captains, but they can hardly ground aircraft due to a lack of experienced Captains either.
I would suggest that if any potential F/Os decided not to come here because of the DEC issue then they obviously listened to to much exaggerated BS on this forum. You obviously still enjoy the job or why on earth are you still here? If you do then why do you try to scare others away?
Nothing has changed, no one within EK new when their upgrade course was going to occur, simply because management don't know either. EK is an extremely dynamic airline, you must be flexible and be ready to accept continual last minute changes just like every other employee.