Phillip Jones - the work force were told about 3 or 4 weeks ago via crewdock. Sim assessments continued up untill yesterday.
As for the costs, we could argue all day as I'm sure we don't know the financial breakdown of the day itself. The HR guys are probably salaried so it doesn't matter if they are assessing or not. These costs are pretty much fixed whether there are 20 or 0 people assessed.
If you want to buy 1 hour on a 737 simulator with a compay like virtualaviation (ie they are making money out of it) it will cost you about £500. The same as Ryanair charge per hour.
I'm not suggesting they are making a fortune out of assessments. I agree, they are probably not doing an awful lot more than breaking even. My point is that I'm sure they would have stopped assessments a tad sooner if they were free.
But, you pays your money and you takes your choice.
Oh and I completely agree. The standards for the FR assessment are very high, despite the rumours. They just seem to have got impossibly tough all of a sudden!