Redundancy has been a fact of life for ground staff for nigh on a decade. Up until now, pilots have been a protected specie. Some will argue that's been justified but when the day of reckoning arrives, it's called a catastrophe. Really? It is time to face reality, tough as it might be, and understand that redundancy is nothing new and faced by thousands of others who would inevitably have been in a much more parlous financial state than any Qantas pilot.
Just a couple of things with this post -
First of all from an accounting point of view Pilots are an Asset - and what I mean by this is that they are an expensively trained unit of labour. (I am ignoring the human side of the equation here, and I am not talking about the BS Sky God QANTAS factor - the same applies to most airlines - and for that matter any other specialist jobs) It has cost thousands of dollars to train a pilot. It is not an overnight process, so there is a hefty time cost as well. The quoted figure some years ago was around $1 million in training over X number of years by the time command is reached. (Things may be cheaper these days) So to get rid of pilots is to also dispose of expensive assets. Obviously nobody in QF treats any staff as assets - they are purely accounted for as an expense under current management practices - so its probably an irrelevant argument.
Secondly, and more interestingly, the reduction in pilots indicates no future plans for expansion (we essentially know this from the lack of QF mainline aircraft on order) - which pretty much indicates doom and gloom for the entire organisation. So if its come down to pilots going, there will be many more going. So yes - it probably is pretty much Catastrophic - not just for pilots, but anyone caught up in the mess.
Lastly:
Really? It is time to face reality, tough as it might be, and understand that redundancy is nothing new and faced by thousands of others who would inevitably have been in a much more parlous financial state than any Qantas pilot.
I'd hate to state the obvious, but it is a Pilots forum - the centre of interest will naturally be around this. I am sure if you go to the professional ground staff forum (or whatever area you choose) the Catastrophe will exist there too.