Are you too "superior" with 4 stripes to sit in the RHS, provided you qualified to occupy the RHS...?
Most of the F/Os I fly with, are fully qualified/current captains.
Which seat we occupy is never an issue.
We have the courtesy of "flipping the coin" to decide who is LHS going out, and RHS coming back.
In a 747 Classic... I even qualified myself as F/E and have flown as such. I am current all 3 seats.
Yes... three captains on some flights, with total of 50,000 hrs experience on the flight deck.
The issue is qualifications/currency, and your paycheck is a contract or union problem.
For me, the PF occupies the LHS, the PNF occupies the RHS.
And I ask sometimes to hand fly an approach and land from the RHS...
Never had an incident involving "who is in what seat".
Don't you have seasonal reductions of crews, either...?
Seems you give yourselves a lot of headaches.
xxx
Happy contrails