What a lot of you are forgetting is not all Virgin Blue FOs have come of Metro's etc. Many have come from the RAAF (F111, Hercs, Orions, BBJs), others from Business jets (BBJs, Challengers, etc), some from other airlines (737, 747, 767, F100, Bae 146 etc) and those who have come from very senior Check and Training positions at Eastern, Sunstate and REX. These are the pilots who were recruited as FO's due to their experience to allow for a quicker upgrade.
The company needs to look at all options before offering the DEC's to cover the short fall in captains for about 2-3 months (the time it takes to upgrade a type rated FO). They could stop assigning leave to Ejet captains, some captains are still getting leave assigned each roster. They could look at increasing the hours the captains fly for the few months. Once again there are captains only doing 40-50 hours per month. If they still can't cover the flying then look at DECs on a short term contract, but not in Brisbane. Send them to PER, SYD or MEL (the only bases that have been avaliable for the last 12 months). These DEC's can commute just like the current DJ captains have to do.