@Aldente
To answer your question directly: private consultants & barrister - costs are fully covered by my medical & legal insurances.
On a more serious note:
Regarding the part that they work 2x as hard: last month I was a total of 10 days away from home for work, did 68 hours. Some of my friends in non-aviation sectors do as much in a week.
As for the salary, i was referring to my friends and acquaintances who are, just like me, halfway up the ladder in their professional careers. I'm not comparing with private medical consultants and barristers with big successful private practices.
@Polax52
I had to throw in borrowed money for my flight training (no silver spoon)
I also had my share of LOCO flying before i got a lucky brake at a major.
and I greatly sympathize with my (our) colleagues at EZY and RYR; the erosion of their T&C's will be a precedent for all of us.
Is there a way to stop the erosion and restore the status of our profession? It will be very difficult. People want to go from A to B, as cheap as possible.
Airlines have one important element on their side: the media. Pilots demanding better T&C's, are being put down in the press as "overpaid busdrivers who want even more" The public thinks that airplanes fly by themselves. Try to explain the fact that the new EASA FTL is unacceptable from a pilots point of view and people will laugh at you. Add to this the fact that in a few years time there will be 1000s of pilots coming from schools in India and China. 14 months and a MPL will do the trick. Cheap labour with comparable quality. It happened to the maritime sector 20 years ago and the beancounters are steering aviation in the same direction.