How would a payrise affect fatigue ? The only difference is that if you throw enough money at it then that just encourages avarice and greed and guys can't help themselves and burn themselves out in the process. Witness the fact that we have some guys on 100+ hrs pcm and record amounts of OT, whilst others do 45. Not due to bloody mindedness. Just ineptitude.
3 man crew. Sadly standard with our competitors and they'd have to give the extra days off down route; so I doubt they'll use it that much. And as to sickness, can't comment as the stats are apocryphal. I'm far from being an apologist for the company; they've always cut fast and loose with crew numbers and got away with it. So apparently they do need to employ more crew.
As to the rostering agreement, all they have done is use their side of an atrociously worded open ended agreement to give notice to revert to the CAP / CAD FTL's, as mandated by the govt, enacted in to the ANO and the law. Again like our competitors. Very little we can do about it, although the union are trying. I very much doubt we'll succeed.
I accept fatigue is a problem. It's Industry wide sadly. And very little will change. Pastoral care has never figured very highly in our profession. Profit and loss does. It doesn't appear that fatigue is the cause in this particular smoking hole although, again, it's all apocryphal as all we are going on is hearsay and the fact that prosecutors have chosen to leak transcripts and other information. Against all the long standing protocols that have evolved over the years in these sort of investigations.
My point is government legislatures can only do so much within a very broad framework. The same is true of companies, which are driven by ever narrowing margins, more rapacious bean counters, and ever more demanding shareholders. We could all hope for 16 days off a month, no night flights, and 45 hours a month. Thats not the profession we're in unless you find your dream job in the Windies, and you get paid accordingly.
It's up to us, and our professional organisations to look out for the mental health of each other. And the last organisation that will come to our aid, or make any sort of pronouncement on the matter is the CAD, nor any other govt regulator for that matter... the EU have just gazetted regs not so long ago ( presumably with a fair amount of Employer lobbying ) that increased pilot hours, ffs.