There are a number of you here who are offended by what is being offered despite having been told the exact deal by people like myself for a long time. I am frankly finding this discussion very wearing - you ARE being offered a permanent contract subject to passing a probationary year as a CTC pilot on a £42/hour basis. You will NOT do zero hours and therefore you will be paid - how many people have to tell you that before you believe it? Unless we face financial ruin or you royally mess up, you will be given a permanent contract as a Second Officer automatically at the end of that first year. That is straight from the horse's mouth. The deal is exactly as per the New Entrant Contract. The Company can put people in further up the scale if they choose, but that can only be a bonus rather than a negative feature. For those of you who think they should be told reasons why they should accept an offer from easyJet, I can only assume you must have an incredible deal lined-up somewhere - good luck.
What most people seem unable to grasp here is that, like Epsilon Vaz has said, this is a seniority system in all but name. You start off on poor terms and conditions (still way better than a turboprop outfit) and work your way up. De fumo in Flammam and others find being told the Captain's terms and conditions 'nauseating' because people are 'boasting' about what they get. No one is boasting about anything - the reason you are being told these figures is because it is what you will get too when you become a Captain. It is therefore material fact in the decision-making process.
I concur with the wise words of others who point out the facts of supply and demand. If easyJet cannot get the people they want they will bump up the deal, but if they can get 15 applicants for each job why would they offer more? Nonetheless, there seems to be plenty of you who seem to have way better offers and will be declining the opportunity to work for us. Given your antipathy towards easyJet at such an early stage in your careers, my strong advice would be to go off to Air Utopia where you are paid twice what we are and work half as hard. For the rest of you, come to easyJet as it is really a great place to be and offers the chance to fly with some great people, destinations and aircraft. Finally, I would strongly concur with the words of Brizzol and Epsilon Vaz, both of whom are very sensible in their advice.