Spikedog
I think that many guys on this forum are just venting their frustration. The thing to remember is that you have no rights as an expat in this country so there is no recourse and hence this forum is the only place to vent.
Ek might be okay for some people, depending on their circumstances off course. Do your own research into EK to determine whether it is okay for you or not. No one should make a career decision based on what is written on pprune. My advise is for you to come to Dubai with your family and look at it with an OPEN MIND.Don't believe everything that EK tells you at the presentations either. They sugar coat everything.
Few things to remember though:
T & C have eroded over the years. They have been gradually eroding ever since I joined a few years ago. (that was when the company was making record profits). The reductions have just spiraled in the last two years.The company has used the recession as an excuse although they have still been profitable. Many guys understand that the past year has been tough for EK and many guys would have been happy if the company had just said that they needed more productivity for a year or so. Instead the company changed the productivity rules unilaterally.
We have seen our productivity threshold change from 78hrs to 92hrs a month.Added to this is the fact that we were given no increase.To make things even worse we were told that our utility bill will only be covered up to a limit even though our contract states that the compay pays for all utilities.
Most salary increases have been below real inflation. The company uses the official inflation rate which most guys here will tell you is way below the real rate.Education support allowance has not been raised for the past two years even though school fees have been increasing 12% on average.
If you come here with two school going kids on a f/o salary than you are not going to save much. Also, with the new rostering rules, you are not going to spend much time at home with your family. Even the time that you do spend at home ,you are going to use that time to recover. We have fatigue issues but the company will not acknowledge this because most guys are too scared to file fatigue related reports even though they are fatigued and know it.
92 hrs a month might not sound like a lot to some of the low cost carrier pilots but remember tht here most of the flying is done middle of the night also through multiple time zones.
Job security and early command used to be another attraction in the past.Both these have been laid to rest in the past year. The hours required to upgrade were changed unilaterally in last year.Also many guys have been fired for minor incidents.
Ek might still be the place for you depending on you circumstances. However, please do your research.