"Fly the contract" is the mantra when in negotiations. So, if you don't care for premium pay get the Negotiating Committee to make it a priority for getting it OUT of the contract. But unless you want to give up pay and/or work rules to dump premium language, you can't really criticize those who "fly the contract" to their benefit.

Back in my day we had a super senior Captain who would use sick leave and trips touching training to drop virtually his entire line. Then he would make himself available for VSA on all of his off days. He was the single highest paid pilot at Alaska Airlines. Crew scheduling knew they could call him anytime to pick up flying.

The good news from the rank and file standpoint was if any line pilot got called on the carpet for sick leave abuse all we had to do was take in this Captain's pay records. He was also the reason we put the limitations on VSA scheduling (fly a VSA trip and you're ineligible unless there's no one junior to you with a VSA request) into the contract.

I guess the point is that if its in the contract and a pilot isn't doing anything outside the requirements of the contract then they're not doing anything wrong. "Fly the contract" is a two edged sword.