Pipe dream
Dragun,
"Company" has the luxury of recruits paying for their initial training so I don't think its too much of an ask to allow an Ejet FO to move off SYD-CBR a few times in 30 years! All within reason. Place some time restrictions and limit the number of moves and everybody is happy. Expecting the Ejet FO to wait till a 777 command before he/she gets to fly long haul and expecting that they will do this is fanciful in the extreme (they have little incentive to stay) (they will get bored).
Pilots have life stages and like to try new styles of flying over their career. This is a natural instinct and doesn't stop because some wannabee corporate highflier decides they can save a buck. If Virgin Blue think they will hold people on type for their entire career so they can save a dollar in training costs (which they didn't pay for at the initial endorsement phase anyway) they might find that their Ejet FO's/Captains might actually piss off overseas to fly a 777 and not play their game at all. Clever ideas can get expensive if you start dicking with morale and peoples long term future. Low turn over can change overnight.
Sounds like another case of clever people over at QF switching APU's off to save X then lose Y when the APU's keep breaking. How does type and career progression work at Qantas? There's your answer.