CAN THE DIRECTORSHIPS OF REGISTERED ARCHAEOLOGICAL ORGANISATIONS REALLY BE TRUSTED TO DO WHATS RIGHT

[GnomeKing]

CAN THE DIRECTORSHIPS OF REGISTERED ARCHAEOLOGICAL ORGANISATIONS REALLY BE TRUSTED TO DO WHATS RIGHT - NOT ONLY FOR THEIR STAFF AND THE PROFFESION - BUT FOR THE OVERALL UK ARCHAEOLOGICAL ENDEVOUR?

see first few posts in the "IfA Council Statement on Archaeological Salaries" thread.......

[Mattymooface]

It seems no thats why i was suprised that the IFA didn't back them, but it they had it would have only confirmed what i thought and imagine others wouls have thought about the IFA.

I can't understand how they could consider cutting feild work staff wages say a day rate is 250.00 per staff per day and they take 10-20 quid off that a day it's a very small percentage on big jobs which have such big funds it wouldn't really matter, small jobs it may repersent a large enough ammount to get the job, but how does that reflect on the short term contract staff wages i imagine it would be a lot to them.

The whole thing seems not very well thought out, and it does make me wonder what other ideas they have come up with to get jobs

[Unitof1]

I spent 25 quids of your earth money yesterday (on petrol, havent calculated car depriciation) to make 75 quids of your earth money, but I won the contract, pathetic that it is.

hope springs eternal

(75-25=

THE DIRECTORSHIPS OF REGISTERED ARCHAEOLOGICAL ORGANISATIONS can only be trusted to feather their own beds just as I would given half a chance

[GnomeKing]

i would like to emphasise the OVERALL UK ARCHAEOLOGICAL ENDEVOUR part - in an effort to move on from some common (and somtimes unhelpful) distictions made between public, commercial, academic etc 'archaeology' -

[Geli]

I think that directors and managers of commercial field units - RO's or otherwise can always be trusted to do what is best for the commercial prosperity of the individual units concerned. That's their primary concern! However, whether or not those commercial concerns are in accordance with what is best for the staff and archaeological practice in the Uk in general is a rather mute point. At present the profession is largely fragmented by the overriding commercial concerns of Units, with basically large numbers of field staff feeling disenfranchised. I believe there are certain parallels between British archaeology and the decline in the ship building industry in the Uk. We have a situation where there is no incentive to work hard or do the job to a high standard, because as soon as the job is finished staff are told to go away (either to sign on or if you're silly live off your savings). This coupled with the pretty poultry wages (considering many of us have a degree and in some a cases a masters) does not lend itself to doing a good standard of work. Equally the fact that most staff positions are so transitory and that there is no formal structure to career development or training in place due to this means you have jobs being carried out by people not qualified, experience or competent to do so. Often people are appointed to the position of site supervisor because they simply have a driving licence and are willing to do whatever they are told to do by management regardless of whether that constitutes good archaeological practice.

The directors and management have been cutting one anothers throats commercially for years in order to win tenders, with the net result that wages have not significantly improved for over a decade and are now in real terms being cut due to the freeze on any further wages increase over the next few years. As I have also noted elsewhere, there is a growing trend to no longer provide accommodation which also limits which jobs many staff can work on.

I think basically this clearly answers the question of whether or not directors and management can be trusted to do what is in the best interests of staff and th profession in general.

[Unitof1]

Not sure about the parallel with the demise of the British ship building industry, particularly the british bit. Ship building just moved else where. You could say its demise was related to the end of the colonial era or the end of the steam engine by diesel . Remember the original quarter wheeler gongola for many years the control ship of the Niger river fleet replaced by the 1958 Gongola built by Yarrow and company Glasgow. Used to be run by this lot http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Afri...of_Nigeria


Seems to me that regionally archaeology does not move elsewhere. In so called boom times so called archaeologists went and worked in areas that they never intended to return to. Bish bash off a few context sheets, happily give them away, then of down the pub, no real concern for who they were working for or where. Now they get to sit around and wonder where home is and whether they value such a concept in the post nation state era

[Bigpicture]

Feel like i'm putting my head on the block here but....

the community i work in have generally agreed that at my own unit (and others that i have worked for previously) the management take an almost personal affront to having to make redundancies/pay cuts. Many of these people are personal friends as well as employees. If it comes to a decision over making job cuts or wage cuts surely maintaining jobs is the lesser of two evils? It is no surprise that management are taking the brunt of grievances on bajrfed but i think people are losing perspective in the face of the crisis. I can't believe anyone takes pleasure in layoffs but perhaps i'm just being naive.

That said, those companies providing tents and such like as we enter the winter months are completely undermining the concept of professionalism in the industry. If anything this must reinforce the sceptical light the construction industry holds us in as a bunch of stripey jumper-wearing, beardy hippies?? Is it any wonder there is a reluctance to pay top (or even medium) dollar for our work in the commercial sector?

[Unitof1]

hello bigpic what kind of vessel is this unit of yours? When was it commissioned? What flags of convenience does it fly under? has there been any talk of the Birkenhead drill?-women and children first. The outcome as I understand it is those in command get as many to safety first but go down with the ship. Its attitude like that were lost with the demise of the great british ship building industry.

[YellowPete]

depends on who is driving the wag..on?

lets face it, when a couple of quid makes all the difference then its pretty stark in the reality bubble, but if the quid is an issue left for later, then you can shift to move a goal.

then we return to the wag..on.

your head, your bed and you gotta lie in it.

lets not try and play god with the 'i could do better' delusion.

we get nowhere with that loss of momentum to any given economy or direction.

there are times and places for things and when it really comes down to it, it relates to whether your fed up of watching and leaving someone else to try do whatever they do.

economies falter on over-bombast and economic recovery relates to getting through the fallout

nuclear or no?


they earn their crust, but what is actually acheived by paying lower wages unless its a pre-cursor to a deflation event?

what kind of deflation who knows.

higher wages may not do anything either unless we live in a society dependent on consumer spending to interact with other human beings?

but if thats the case, then what quality of return are we going to receive from an abstract bottom line.

why not sit in a library learning independently, but not in a co-opperative way where people could recognise a qualification as a meaningful, or useful accrutriment for others to be able to either exchange in understanding or else an agreed upon appreciation, but rather as an island in silence.

lets face it though, if there were no islands of silence, to develop and grow in oneself, then thus all the bombast in the world would only ever know but little of what they could ever know.

Mike

[YellowPete]

yeah like whatever