Honestly?
Well in other threads you support the idea of being self-employed and working for an airline, so obviously we have different points of view.
Yes the EZY Spanish contract compared to the UK contract (even the French contract) might be worse, much worse in some cases, especially with the GBP-EUR exchange rate. But you cannot compare it to the UK, you need to compare that with other Spanish operators, like you said, VLG.
EZY captains on a Spanish contract have the same basic salary (not really basic, basic+plus de comandante in VLG) as a VLG 10 year skipper (potentially 14-15 years down the line). EZY F/Os on the Spanish contract (F/O, not SFO, high is much higher) are on the same basic salary as a VLG 10 year F/O. Variable pay (per diems, SBYs) might be better for experienced F/O at VLG and just slightly better for captains (not sure about this though) during the summer. Just to be clear, I am talking about the new Spanish contract, not the old Madrid one.
No pension, no loyalty bonus, no fixed-roster... Same as VLG. Easy crews in Spain do have a certain amount of money paid by the company which they can use in pensions, private medical insurances, etc. Same as VLG. This is the way it works in Spain. For non SPanish people this might be hard to understand, but the state pension in Spain (paid with your contributions) is significantly higher than in the UK, and having a private pension scheme is not compulsory, many many people do not have one. This is however not good for foreign crew, as obviously in order to get the full Spanish pension you will have to contribute around 35 years of your life, which is simply not doable by many people and therefore they will need a private pension scheme. I will give you that one. But it is the same in VLG.
VLG offers, however, huge stability (in BCN, if you want to be there) a few years down the line, fantastic staff travel and TRE/TRI options in the future (not possible at the moment in EZY outside the UK as far as I am concerned).
Financially speaking, for new entrant F/O and skippers, Easyjet is probably the best contract you can get at the moment in Spain (if Air Europa lowers their terms and conditions for new people, and they will do, same as Iberia). Yes a 12 year Captain might be better off in VLG, but looking 12 years ahead in aviation (16-17 for brand new FO) is somewhat silly, especially when SO, FO, SFO and junior CAP are much much better off in EZY.
However, the EZY contract I agree is far from being ideal. Not saying that. It has got many things that will have to improve in the future in order to retain crews, but being a brand new base it is a good start.
Do not forget many VLG crews are not happy at all. I know many VLG guys applying for EZY BCN, do not know EZY guys applying for VLG BCN. Does that say something?
Happy landings