26th May 2006, 08:34 PM
There certainly seem to be a lot of pipeline projects on this year after a period of relative quiet. It is worth remembering that there are several established companies who provide archaeological services on these projects - as far as I am aware the need for staff is universal and will continue for some time.
There is certainly room for improvement in pipelines but in their defence I would say that when you are carrying out a watching brief over tens of kilometres it does not matter how much work you do up front you are still going to get some nasty surprises. When this happens you potentially need to find a large workforce for a small period and this is not easy - there just aren't dozens of qualified and experienced diggers out there who are a)unemployed or b)interested in relocating at the drop of a hat for what could be no more than a couple of weeks employment, probably 4-8 if they're lucky.
Putting aside the rights or wrongs of diggers wage levels - in my 'youth' (when I could work 12 hr days/6 day weeks without keeling over)I found the overtime a much needed boost to my non-existant diggers bank balance.
There is certainly room for improvement in pipelines but in their defence I would say that when you are carrying out a watching brief over tens of kilometres it does not matter how much work you do up front you are still going to get some nasty surprises. When this happens you potentially need to find a large workforce for a small period and this is not easy - there just aren't dozens of qualified and experienced diggers out there who are a)unemployed or b)interested in relocating at the drop of a hat for what could be no more than a couple of weeks employment, probably 4-8 if they're lucky.
Putting aside the rights or wrongs of diggers wage levels - in my 'youth' (when I could work 12 hr days/6 day weeks without keeling over)I found the overtime a much needed boost to my non-existant diggers bank balance.