Oh dear, Poppy,
Are you really criticising employees for taking LWOP?? It is important to spell out what those letters do stand for especially the 'W'.
Good grief man can't you imagine the disruption to both professional and personal life that such an action involves for what may well be a demotion as you pointed out? What a tough decision to have to make.
The LWOP pay option was put out there to the pilot body, by the company, as a strategy to reduce short to medium term pressure on operations. Some found work places where they were actually appreciated and respected and will be a loss to Qantas.
I think by "hey let's all take a payout so that everyone can stay in a job" you may have meant 'pay cut'?
Sound professional behaviour needs to be always modelled from the top down. Its a bit rich to blame people for not volunteering to take a pay cut while except, for a recent token effort, management have continued ceaselessly and regularly to reward themselves handsomely and amazingly, in inverse proportion to company earnings and way above parity for their peers OS.
LD