A courtesy call to the 2nd Captain was thoughtful. Going sick if too fatigued to do the flight is required by law. So what was the problem?
I hope by the time he returned to DXB he reconsidered his decision to have words with his buddy. I suspect he was just venting some steam when he made those comments earlier.
Remember why we now get paid for sim supports? Because so many pilots simply called in sick instead of doing a days work for free. If more people rightly call in sick for this pairing, then perhaps it too will change. It is an absurd pairing and should be changed. It will cost the company some money but that is the price of doing business. As it stands now, doing this pairing is risking our health. Is there anything more important than that?
They will push us until we push back.