Flying Camel
You're right, it's a terrible way to treat people and is an ongoing concern. Cadets have reportedly been leaving in droves, and who can blame them. The problem is easyJet just replace them with more cadets. Crewing levels are supposed to be better than last year, but we have captains riding as safety pilots because there aren't enough FOs. We'll see.
IAEDude
If the company does recruit DEFOs then I think 2700 hours on the bus will be very attractive to them, but don't expect a quick command, long waiting list already.
JT