What companies say publicly and what actually happens behind the scenes are frequently two different things.
Regulations doubtlessly state that it is a pilot's duty not to fly if he feels incapable of operating safely through fatigue/illness etc and every manager will publicly laud this to the heavens and categorically say that his airline puts safety above all else including profit and would never pressure a pilot to do otherwise.
We all know the reality of the above statement so I will not spell it out. I have no personal knowledge of FR so I will not debate their internal methodology, but until a pilot can go to his manager and say "I cannot fly today, I have just done 4 long, 4 sector days and I am fatigued" without fear of retribution in some way we are, as an industry, heading for a fatigue induced accidend of some sort or another. Until the bean counters allow Flight Ops Managers to emply sufficient crews to realistically cover their flying requirements as well as allow for sickness, last minute charters and various other human elements the situation will not improve.
And let's stop bashing 411A just because he POSTS something here, it's beginning to get like "Guvnor Bashing". He is right in his last post here, whether we like it or not. The shareholders do NOT care how hard the staff have to work as long as they get their dividends. Most of them probably do not understand aviation at all and arejust in it because it gives them a good return.
RdR