Sprinkles,
Quite a few of the new entrants have been offered 75% in the last few months. But many have been converted to 100% - the reason was the exact planning for winter hadn't been completed, so we had to offer something (as per the NEC transitional arrangements) and you can't offer 100% and convert it to 75% but you can 75% and then upgrade it.
FO 75% with sector pay pays slightly more than SO.
75% contracts are done on seniority/base, so should not last long. 12 months flexi is a contractual maximum. The reason it is done that way is to allow the company to take liberties - most notably with re-basing and seasonality. It's a crap 12 months.
However, for the third (!) time, all of this is for new entrants, not DEPs. If easyJet think they can get away with offering the NEC to DEPs and it is too low for you, then just politely decline. I would.
Mac72,
I appreciate the frustration you must be feeling still working as a FI and unable to get in, even with that shiny A320 rating. I imagine you may well have heard from some of the pilots who have been "shown the door overnight for no good reason". EcamSurprise has it right though - we have never chucked someone out for no good reason - it's simply a waste of money and you know we don't do that. Ones that have been hoofed out have been for stuff that you would expect to be hoofed out for. Watching a movie in the cruise - in line training. Doing airport standby from home. Reading a magazine during SEP training and stating to the SEP trainer "this is not for me, I'm a pilot". Saying to the Capt during a pre-flight brief when looking up from texting "I don't give a sh!t". The performance issues are nearly all landing ones (lots of TOGA10 take overs, or damaged aircraft). As EcamSurprise says, none of these guys are going to tell you that they got chucked out for being a tit or because they can't fly - they are bound to describe the event as "for no reason". And yes, I am (slightly indirectly) involved.
PS - we did have a group that were taken on for a summer only and who were quite upset when their contract ended. But it was all explained before they signed, it's just they thought eJ would change their minds. It could have been those you were talking to, but it's unlikely given that most came back a few months later.