Zippy, I agree your lot have been royally mucked about.
However, CTC cadets chose to get involved and were SOLD a product. The prize was a full time job with EZY - but only after LST and 6 months line training (the "pay" was some £6k paid back out of your original investment). Some of you had debts nearing £120k after CTC approved training and living expenses.
Others were let go after the 6 months and worked bar/burger flipping jobs. Then when another Gatwick based A320 airline showed interest, CTC blocked movement so they could "employ" you for another 6 months on minimal wages with EZY.
This is as much P2F as anything else on the market. Only worse - you can't apply for other jobs because you have a CTC contract!
Here then is the new "self improver"/"hour builder" route except it costs x5 more than the old CAA 700h licence and ends with a mafia style "job".
Lack of Flying currency creates a greater dependency on the P1. The P1 (even a contract one) is the person ultimately responsible for the flight - not the FO.
Acmech - as one who has worked as an engineer, and been unemployed several times I still think folk are right to fight for better Ts&Cs. Why should experienced folk be overlooked from a safety standpoint (e.g: Over a hundred UK based Boeing pilots from Globespan, TUifly etc).
Some things require more moral fibre. Taking any old job (and I've worked as a welder and in other low paid jobs) is survival but it isn't the only issue - professionalism requires encouragement.
Lewis Hamilton may in many eyes be a youngster but he started his apprenticeship in 1993 in karting. He did not start driving F1 cars till 2007. If F1 P2D were available do you think he'd be as good a driver at age 16? I doubt it.
As for requiring at least 800h to fly commercially - this is now going through congress in the USA and was the case in Europe up until JAR regs in the late 1990s.
Low houred schemes are fairly recent and occurred because of these regs and schools offering their "approved" and very expensive courses. Yes BA had low houred cadets but they took 8+ years to reach command and often started on Turboprop regionals.
Change will come when regulators, insurance companies and the Public wake up to the mess we are in.