+- BAJR Federation Archaeology (http://www.bajrfed.co.uk)
+-- Forum: BAJR Federation Forums (http://www.bajrfed.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?fid=3)
+--- Forum: The Site Hut (http://www.bajrfed.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?fid=7)
+--- Thread: Pay: an analysis (/showthread.php?tid=95)
Pay: an analysis - kevin wooldridge - 15th March 2006
The proposed IFA 'benefits package' due to be introduced by RAOs from April 2007 does not really offer much. To my mind the system will be impossible to administer, virtually impossible to calculate the 'true worth' of a wage and enshrining the practice of archaeological employment (based almost wholly on a Local Government model) that over 30 years has proved incapable of being fair or finacially rewarding.
It is a model that is increasingly unworkable as every year less and less archaeologists are employed by local government. Underlying the proposal is the fact that the IFA minimum wage will still be well below ?300 per week. It seems the IFA are coming down wholly on the side of employers and arguing that the value of 'benefits' offsets the need for a 'dignity wage'.
By April 2007 it will be illegal for any employer not to offer short-contract staff comparable benefits to all other employed staff. As I wrote in reply to Kate Geary's 'open letter' to BAJR back in November 'The suggestion ....that an employer can absolve a legal responsibility by paying an enhanced wage is actually a non-starter. If anyone employed in the company gets paid leave, holiday pay, sick leave, access to a pension scheme etc etc, then everyone employed by the company is entitled to same..'
How is it possible to treat sick pay as a 'benefit' rather than a right? What happens at the end of the year if an employee has been lucky enough to work a whole year without a sick day? Do they lose their 'benefit' or abuse the system and cash in by taking time off on the slightest pretence. Certain sections of the media might describe such moves as 'A Slackers Charter', rather than a serious proposal from a professional body.
I calculate that in mainland UK we have 8 bank holidays a year. The IFA proposal for a minimum leave allowance of 20 days per annum [u]inclusive</u> of bank holidays, actually works out as a annual leave allowance of 12 days. That's surely not a serious proposal from a professional body.
Pension rights may or may not be a benefit. I am sure there are many more archaeologists on SERPS alone than there are in company schemes. The IFA proposal actually ignores the perk that would actually benefit the majority of UK archaeologists, that is higher wages leading to a higher SERPS pension at the end of ones working life. Without any guarantee of continuous employment and with a mix of private and public sector employers, SERPS is really the [u]only</u> pension scheme that can benefit many archaeologists.
I notice that the IFA 'consultation period' for the implementation of this scheme runs out in 16 days time. I hope that plenty of RAOs vote against it and instead adopt a policy that archaeology, first and foremost, needs an across the board 'dignity wage'.
Pay: an analysis - ladyjen - 15th March 2006
So the IFA "propose" that we should all get 20 days leave per year? Really? A quick search of the BBC website brings up this page http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2211695.stm about the Working Time Directive, which says - "Every worker, including those who work on a temporary basis or on a fixed-term contract, are entitled to 20 days' holiday (including bank holidays) each year from their employer".
So we are already entitled to 20 days leave, IFA proposal or not.
"a pound of shelled peanuts was handsome pay by any apes standards" Pratchett 1998
Pay: an analysis - Reggie - 16th March 2006
LG employees can usually expect around 22 days annual leave pa for service of less than 5 years, and 8 days bank holidays in addition to this. Some LGs (and civil service) employees also have extra 'privilege' leave days such as the Queen's Birthday and Maundy Thursday afternoon, amongst others. Both public and civil service employees can usually expect increased annual leave increments if they have longer service plus a variety of other benefits including flexible working schemes, nursing leave, bereavement leave, sick pay on full salary for up to 6 months, day release for work related training, help with fees for non-work related training/education, loans for purchasing transport season tickets, etc.
Pay: an analysis - kevin wooldridge - 16th March 2006
Quote:quote:Originally posted by Reggie
LG employees can usually expect around 22 days annual leave pa for service of less than 5 years, and 8 days bank holidays in addition to this. Some LGs (and civil service) employees also have extra 'privilege' leave days such as the Queen's Birthday and Maundy Thursday afternoon, amongst others. Both public and civil service employees can usually expect increased annual leave increments if they have longer service plus a variety of other benefits including flexible working schemes, nursing leave, bereavement leave, sick pay on full salary for up to 6 months, day release for work related training, help with fees for non-work related training/education, loans for purchasing transport season tickets, etc.
Now that sounds like a benefits package and if the IFA were proposing such as a minimum for all RAOs, you wouldn't be hearing any complaints from me.
Pay: an analysis - Reggie - 16th March 2006
Yes, if the IFA want to continue to use LG as a model for archaeologists pay then they should look at the whole package. Generally, despite Union campaigns over many years, for most jobs in the civil and public service salary levels have always been slightly below those of equivelent jobs in the private sector, but the benefits package at least goes some way to make up the difference. Having such good conditions of service kept me in the civil service for nearly 20 years before I quit to become an archaeologist.
Getting an agreed pay scale across the majority of archaeology units is one thing, but achieving other benefits such as those mentioned above is quite another.
Pay: an analysis - historic building - 16th March 2006
I took a pay cut moving from consultancy to local government but the benefits package more than makes up for it. I was rather gobsmacked in the interview when it was explained to me. Where previously I had worked we were limited to three sick days per year which grew to this maximum incrementally over the time you had served. I used mine up by breaking a contact lens and going to a useless optician which took too many appointments. I then found my pay being cut to cover this despite my employer losing none of my time due to my working the necessary hours to cover it.
Pay: an analysis - mercenary - 16th March 2006
Quote:quote:The IFA proposal for a minimum leave allowance of 20 days per annum inclusive of bank holidays, actually works out as a annual leave allowance of 12 days. That's surely not a serious proposal from a professional body.
That is a joke.
To the best of my knowledge I have always got 20 days PLUS the 8 or 9 stat holidays whether I was working for a local authority unit or a private one. This may not have been the case from one or two units where I was on a very short contract which I didn't renew, but the norm in my experience is 28-29? days per year. So the IFA wants to enshrine the right to fewer? I guess I won't be working for any RAO's any time soon.
Pay: an analysis - Tile man - 16th March 2006
The package is outlined here
http://www.bajr.org/BAJRForum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=430
which are
37.5 hour average working week
? Employer pension contribution of 6%, subject to any reasonable qualifying period
? 20 days annual leave excluding statutory holidays
? Minimum sick leave allowance of 1 month on full pay, subject to any reasonable qualifying period
It actually says 20 days EXCLUDING statutory holidays
Pay: an analysis - the invisible man - 16th March 2006
This is laughable. Surely it's a typo and should read "exclusive of bank holidays". 20 days exclusive is in my experience a minimum out in the real world - I havent had a job with less than that since 1974! My last proper job was 25 exclusive (but I had been there 15 years). Also in a "professional" environment, unless you are in a large or LG organisation with all the encumburances of HR departments etc, formal sick leave doesn't generally exist, it works on trust.
We owe the dead nothing but the truth.
Pay: an analysis - Tile man - 16th March 2006
Yup!