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+--- Thread: Archaeologists against the cuts (/showthread.php?tid=3492)
Archaeologists against the cuts - kevin wooldridge - 24th October 2010
The BBC article on the tribunal decision is formatted as a FAQ session http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-10869607 Regarding the 'legal' position of volunteers vis a vis employment legislation the article asks:
'Q: Are there any exceptions to the national minimum wage?
Yes. Apprentices, voluntary workers helping a charity or public body. Nobody else is excluded really'.
So I guess some archaeological bodies may be able to claim exemption from the minimum wage law, but some clearly won't.
Archaeologists against the cuts - Wax - 24th October 2010
And even charities and public bodies must pay the minimum wage if they have what can be seen as a "contract of employment" with an individual (apprentices excluded). Contracts of employment can be verbal so just because an organisation is a registered charity it is not excluded from paying the minimum wage unless the work is very clearly voluntary, which in the big charities is very clearly defined. As you can see a big can of worms just waiting for someone to open it
Archaeologists against the cuts - Wax - 24th October 2010
Essential reading for volunteers? http://www.volunteering.org.uk
Archaeologists against the cuts - kevin wooldridge - 24th October 2010
Wax Wrote:Essential reading for volunteers? http://www.volunteering.org.uk
Thanks Wax, that's very interesting.
Archaeologists against the cuts - Digger - 25th October 2010
Curious- Archaeologists againsts the cuts, yet no main stream political parties are against them. They just disagree over the when to do them. Cue tumbleweeds, stage left....
Archaeologists against the cuts - kevin wooldridge - 25th October 2010
I think every political party is in favour of some kind of cutting.... its just a question of what you cut. My personal agenda would be cut Trident, cut non-essential military spending, cut incentive schemes for banks and bankers, cut privatisation of nationally essential assets, cut cuts to heritage, cut footballer wages....etc etc
Archaeologists against the cuts - GnomeKing - 26th October 2010
(cut trident :face-approve
Our problem is - .......plans are entirely lead by Reduction, and not by any consideration of what we want to save, what kind of society we want, and what has real value...
this is not austerity - just fiddling with loose change.
Our use and abuse of fundamental resources (materials, water, land, food, human creativity) is the Elephant in the Room.
Climate change comes on top of reckless and profligate wastes of resources and energy, and although 'carbon footprinting' purports to address global warming, it speaks nothing to the waste of materials and effort implicit in every part of the 'capitalist' world system....for one thing 'carbon footprint' is framed entirely within the concept and context of Market Economics - these theories and value judgements are culturally, technologically and temporally contextual
archaeologists should know this better than most...and know that as a species (rather than just a nation, economy, culture etc) we are inherently bound within a causal ecological system with many other participants. Rather than draing an arbitrary boundary around 'economics' and limiting it to contextual items such as money, ecologists and theorists have tried to expand direct market principles to account for the work done annually by the 'natural' world in our capitalist market economies......guess what? - annually, trillions are owed, and have built up to staggering proportions (even when compared to a 'high-fliers' bonus...)
This illustrates that our 'Economic Realities' are just as fictional as the (allegedly) departed Animal Spirits. It ilustrates what is 'real/enduring' and what is 'contextual/transient' - taht our economy and culture are only where they are because of teh deffered debt we accured whilst causing exxcseive damge and through our profligarte exctraction/accumulartion of high effort/energy materials.
The parts of this planetary debt that, by shear force, do become visible within the busy lives of our species are also displaced from one group of humans on to another -e.g.:'cheap' products, 'cheap' labour, environmental degre4dation here for profits gained elsewhere, wage salves, and war
Consumers are offered, and are bedazzled by, a million glittering baubles - whole tracts of productive human life and creative ingenuity is dedicated to producing, selling and finally consuming Stuff, (Newer Stuff, Better stuff, stuff with extra high definition, When & Where YOU want it, all year round, wireless, packaging, package, pack...)
"whats wrong with wealth?" - whats right with profiting from tat? ---
its not about reduction - its about realising what should be valued at core....
(in the words of R4 Andy Hamilton "if i am in debt, i don't just stop buying toilet paper and wipe my arse on the wall!")
Resource usage must become more austere - this is the more pressing debt, with greater consequences for the whole world population, and yes,even our own individual everyday western lives.
A radical well msut be drawn upon, not more token shuffling and credit balancing acts - some industries and jobs need to change if an Over-Consumerist society is to re-adapt itself to Real Resources based economics....unlike the Con-Dem proposals, this dramatic alteration would eventually secure a better future for all.
Archaeologists against the cuts - Jack - 28th October 2010
When have humans ever done whats best in the long run?
Never in my opinion.
Archaeologists against the cuts - Digger - 28th October 2010
Not true, Big Brother (the TV one) is now defunct.
Archaeologists against the cuts - Dinosaur - 28th October 2010
Ah, Britain leading the way like in the 'Good Old Days'! :face-approve:
...it's still on in plenty of other countries...bit of Gunboat Diplomacy anyone? - before they scrap all the ships of course....:face-thinks: