One is the duty times. EK seem to be playing with these and not counting bunk time or something. I have met guys who routinely fly over 100 in 28. Maybe this is voluntary, but if not there is no way I can do this. Too old, and hear that the EK bunks are awful anyway.
A good example of the style of management you can expect is the use of factoring.
The GCAA were concerned that cadet pilots would count time spent as augmenting pilot when adding their hours for the issue of an ATPL. They wrote to EK about it. The letter was misinterpreted (hey anyone can make an honest mistake, right?) and the current policy is that augmenting pilots now only count 'stick time' when calculating their flight hours for FTL purposes.
In other words you can augment to SYD (14 hours block) but only count 6 hours toward your 100/28,900/12mth totals. The pairing includes a SYD_CHC_SYD (7hours) and another 14 hours augmenting back to DXB. The result 35 hours of block of which only 19 hours count!
In EK there is no union and no
meaningful dialogue with the pilot group. Nothing is voluntary here except working on days off!(for now).
Leave is another big issue. A recent change limited the maximum period of leave to three weeks. If you live 8-10 time zones away that impacts your quality of leave. There was no consultation prior to this change. The reason for the change was that more guys would get the hallowed 'peak leave' (school holidays). I have yet to see any evidence of this.
A recent letter outlawed the use of vacant cabin seats for longhaul rest if a Crew Rest Cabin was available. If you augment to SYD, at 10.30am you are expected to lie horizontal in a coffin space and sleep for six hours during a circadien high. There is no option. I hear the 777 CRC is very noisy and uncomfortable.
Just a few examples illustrating the pilot groups lack of power in EK. There are many more.