I've done a few of those positioning sectors, jolly pleasant they are too. Sadly they only occur when service switches from 3 to 4 days or vice versa at the transition between the summer and winter schedules, hence the arrangement does not last 'quite a while'.
There seems to be a lot of hysteria about people taking a pay cut but as far as I'm aware nobodys been asked to take a pay cut. A significant chunk of those savings oulf be achieved by desisting from screwing the company.