antonov09 - The wonderful thing about PPRuNe is you can make statements with no basis in reality and the gullible and foolish just lap it all up as fact. In your case, however, you are actually are correct on one important point about easyJet - some of us do indeed wear cheap plastic anoraks to work. On the other minor details of easyJet contracts you are totally wrong. You obviously work at Gatwick and it is understandable you cannot stand us, as we are more successful than nearly all the other airlines there put together. Like all conspiracy theorists, it may be difficult to dislodge some of your neuroses about us, but I will do my best. If, however, you believe that the CIA kiiled JFK, man did not land on the moon, the Illuminati run the world and that MI5 killed Princess Diana it may prove difficult.
No pilot at easyJet now gets taken on with a 'zero hour contract' as you describe. Without exception they get taken on at some point on the New Entrant Contract scale, but do earn £1200 for 8 months. The brand new MPL guys or CTC cadets go onto what is effectively a year's probation at the end of which they get permanent contracts. Absolutely every one of them knows the deal beforehand and the times at which move up the scale (annually). From the second they arrive at easyJet they are destined to go onto that permanent contract if they do not mess up too badly (like any airline there is a minimum standard, which even you would support I hope). There is a clear route from where they are to where I am as a TRE. It can be done from zero to TRE in around 10-12 years if that is what you want and can pass the interviews, courses etc. A 10 year TRE at easyJet earns around £160k a year - not quite Lufthansa, but not exactly the stuff of starvation in the street. There are various contract variations depending on what country you are based in, so I will quote the UK one as that is the one I know best. A Captain at easyJet (we have promoted around 120 this year) earns a basic of £93,821 plus sector pay of around £30 a sector (you do about 400-450 sectors a year at Gatwick) plus they get 7% of their salary paid by the Company into a pension fund. The main topic of conversations among captains is how they are going to manage to keep their salary below £100k/year to avoid the high tax bracket - not easy, but a problem most people would prefer to have. You can become a captain at easyJet from arriving as a cadet in around 6 years (some of done it quicker). The key thing is the whole deal is not like Ryanair with every pilot having some variation on a hidden contract - every pilot knows exactly the deal and knows exactly the deal the guy sat next to him is on. We are not perfect, but we are completely transparent. As a little aside, this week I received a further £3600 into my current account from a share dividend. I have also been putting in £125 a month into a share scheme for the last few years. I cash them in every month - this month I got £1350 tax-free on my £125 investment. Next month I will do the same. Yes, it is hard to bear, but I am coping. Also, like nearly all easyJet pilots of all ranks I have been putting £250 a month over 3 years (total investment £9000) into another share scheme run by the Company. Assuming the share price does not collapse between now and August, I expect to get around £55k back on my investment. There are indeed some shocking problems of capital gains tax to consider, but again I am coping. Oh, and before I forget, I also receive around £2k in profit-related pay just before Christmas - I hope to do the same this year. And finally, I am about to receive about £3600 net in back holiday pay in May. It is a terrible airline, flying these horrible brand new Airbuses to more destinations than most airlines in the world could offer. But yes, you were absolutely right - the plastic anoraks are a terrible item of clothing.