I cannot speak for the technical side of the house that Capt_Tech is referring to, and what he says may be true. I can, however, speak for the pilot side of the house that no sponsor refers to and can say with confidence that his comments are not accurate. I have worked for easyJet for ten years and know the system fairly well.
Following years of pilot/management dispute over contracts, the war pretty-well ended with the arrival of the 'New Entrant Contract' about a year or so ago. That basically gave a guaranteed job to anyone who passed the selection system and got rid of the old 'flexicrew' system. It is quite complex and has been done to death elsewhere. The figures I am about to quote are from memory so there may be the odd glitch in there. The basics are that you work on a 'pay by the hour' system on a temporary contract as a Second Officer for one year. Assuming you have not done anything stupid during that year, you are automatically offered a permanent contract after a year as a First Officer at £39k with no sector pay. After doing a year on that you go up to £46k +£17/sector sector pay (work on around 450 sectors a year). After two years on that (it may be one but I think it is two - can't remember!) you become a Senior First Officer on just under £57k + sector pay. The only reason to have that first year (where you will earn more than you do in your second year!) is just to ensure that we have got the right guy. If you are not a dork you will automatically advance into a permanent contract. Therefore the statement given previously about giving out 'low paid temporary contracts' is not correct - the temporary bit only applies to the tiny handful of idiots who get employed by mistake in every airline. It gives easyJet a way of getting rid of people without difficulty any time any time during the first year, should the need arise. The system is still transitioning-in, but I do not know of anyone who has fallen foul of it and not been employed. In reality it is early days yet so it is a bit soon to make absolute judgements, but at this stage it looks fine. Hope that clarifies the situation.