Self sponsoring is quite old, now. Most of the new generation pilots are self sponsored to a lesser or greater extent.
But flying in an airline as a FO withoug getting paid as any other copilot in the airline is unacceptable for the normal copilots who get paid. It is robbing someone else's money and turning it into training, which is in turn paid to the airline.
What wiil easyjet FOs say if they start having summer FOs working without being paid? Are they happy with that? With others doing their job for free?
If they are so crazy, which I don't believe...
Are they willing to pay their command course when they are "offered" to do it? (that is the natural next step in this spiral dive we are in)
Many of you, readers of this post (thanks for reading, btw) are captains who think these issues are battles in the lower layers of the pilot community, like the third class in the Titanic.
But what would you think if durring a given month you fly 50 hours less because there is a self sponsored training captain flying those hours?
What would you think if your airline goes bankrupt and you cannot find a job in any other airline because they prefer self sponsored first command captains instead of experienced captains?
Then many will think quite differently.
Many things in life are good, not so good, bad or very bad, depending on the degree. Self sponsoring is one.
Others are totally good or totally bad, no matter the degree. Doing someone else's job for free is one.
Whatever scheme EZY does, it should include a standard permanent contract at the end of the training (after the first flight without a training captain, at the latest).