SH rosters vary widely depending on the type of trips you like. At the moment there is everything from day trips to 5-day trips. On the multi-day trips I have seen everything from one deadheading sector to 5 sectors. There is the potential for flying only to UK airports if you like British telly on your nightstop, or the whole of the rest of Europe if you like to practice your foreign language skills. At LHR we use 'Bidline' to bid for work and combined with a good bid program even very junior people can usually get the days off and the sort of trip that they want.
The starting salary zzz quoted is the starting salary for Direct Entry Pilots. If you join as a TEP the salary is £25920 in the first year, and on top of that you have to pay back £250 per month training fees. It is only in year 5 that you begin to be paid the same amount as a DEP. Under the terms of the new pay deal all destinations attract the same hourly allowance rate so there is no longer the split between senior destinations and the ones that pay a pittance, although I am sure that the senior guys will soon find a way to make sure they get a better deal than the more junior ones.
As to how they treat the pilots, on the whole we have good roster stability, but are constantly trying to get our management team to stand up for us. It currently seems in BA that CSDs command far more respect than FOs, and many cabin crew actually believe that CSDs are second in command of the aircraft.