757 Driver,
You just freeze pay until you catch up with the new scale by virtue of your length of service. They've just done this at MartinAir/KLM. Although, all the MartinAir pilots have gone to the BOTTOM of the seniority list!
Have to say, Chief Willy has got it right here....
I think it'll make the square root of **** all difference to the number of applicants BA continue to get via their DEP scheme.