Safety was never an issue under the old system and it IS deliberately malicious because there is a reasonable option which would satisfy all on the table.
In fact, the path chosen by the company CREATES an unsafe situation--commuters under the old system which was working fine now have to change their lives and scramble to find a place--also having the added financial and family pressures of more days gone with dodgy temporary lodging in a place they didn't want to make a full time home. Add to this arbitrary nature of reserve time blocks swapped around to punish folks which could result in a long flight after being awake for a very long time. No longer can folks really plan their rest because no one has any idea when they might be called out or what for. Somewhat stable rosters combined with a known duty window let folks plan; this is designed to do the opposite.