Question about downgrading.

lets say the company decides to downgrade 800 pilots starting October 1st. You can’t possibly put 800 pilots in the sim in one months time for a FO PC check because of limited sim capacity (don’t forget all the recurrent training for other pilots as well.)

So my question is, if you are a captain and you are downgrading when does your new FO payrate start? When you finish your PC? So it could possibly take many months past October 1st to wait your turn for your “downgrade PC” and your new FO payrate?

and they can’t force you to keep flying as a captain but pay you FO rate, or maybe they can just tell you are automatically dq’ed from being a captain and you have a couple of months off untill your PC is available? Asking for a friend.