Sittingidly I will never defend the DEC policy. All deliveries this year have been known about for years. That the managers could not recognise that stopping recruitment in 2008 would one day bite, or that they can not plan ahead effectively re manpower needs is nothing new. They sacrifice our days off and leave at a whim to fix their lack of planning, and the DEC hiring now is for the same reasons as last time. Managers care only for their own short term gain (bonus) and have no interest in career development of their pilots. This is why all the hard questions are answered with "If you don't like it leave!".
The difference now is that present FOs new this could happen when they joined. If it was considered ok that FOs were being shafted by DEC hiring when they joined, why should it be different now? The DEC option has been on the recruiting web page, although not active, since the last DEC was recruited. This policy is no secret.
As I mentioned before this new command and transfer policy shafts new minibus captains, and some maxibus FOs. It is great for new joining FOs on the minibus, and minibus FOs who lacked the experience to go 380, as they will now get a command prior to their more experienced course mates who were forced to the 380 "for operational reasons".
The Don