kevin wooldridge
Unregistered
I dont know if anyone else has noticed the salary quoted for the English Heritage project archaeologist and supervisors posts currently being advertised on BAJR.
According to Outwage records the payrates have been increased by 8.5% and 8.2% respectively since the same posts were advertised almost exactly 12 months ago. (That is by £27 and £30 per week to £341 and £384 pw for those lacking calculators).
If the new English Heritage pay rates are intended as a benchmark for the profession, it is to be welcomed and sets a new aspiration for the archaeological 'dignity' wage.
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Kevin,
This is a result of a project we ran last year, run by my former colleague Mary Walkden, in which we drafted new fieldwork job descriptions from scratch using the National Occupational Standards for Archaeology. This work was carried out by a small team from Fort Cumberland, with a few 'stakeholders' from our Human Resource team, IFA and our TU side. Further comments came from the EH Heads of Training and Standards and of Outreach (we included project outreach staff in the job description project).
There were a number of reasons for doing this. For example, we have been running a training module in field skills for some time on our projects for graduate-level archaeologists, and it is our long-term aim to develop more courses for supervisors and project managers - so defining the skills necessary for each grade was an essential first step. The new job descriptions have already been very useful in helping us to set up the IFA/HLF-funded Finds and Environmental Supervisor traineeship that was advertised recently.
It is also true that the quality of applications that we received in the past was extremely variable, and we wanted to make the skills and experience required for each post more explicit. In doing so, we hoped that this will help applicants to identify the training that they might need to apply for higher-graded posts.
Once we had the revised job descriptions, we asked a Human Resources colleague to assess pay and grading, to ensure that the levels of responsibility and pay were consistent with other EH staff. It was this comparison of the set of skills and experience required for each field post against a wide range of other EH jobs that resulted in the revised salaries.
Whether this sets a new benchmark or not remains to be seen. We do intend to publish this report in our new Research Department reports series, which will be available electronically in the near future. By setting out the reasoning behind the new job descriptions we will, I hope, be making a useful contribution to this debate.
In the meantime, we have started to send out the new application packs, and have asked for feedback from potential applicants whether they decide to apply or not.
Happy to discuss further, on- or off-list,
Brian Kerr
English Heritage Archaeological Projects, Fort Cumberland, Portsmouth
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Taking a closer look at the skill sets of highly skilled individuals working in a generally undervalued and underpaid sector can only be good news. Finding some method of disseminating this to the commercial sector should help to achieve better standards of living and career stability - and may even lead to a more professional attitude.
Thanks for your hard work Uncle Brian!
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Thanks MM, but you should really thank Mary who led the project and made us finish it.
I hear that congratulations are in order....[8D]
Brian
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Happy to hear more about this... and also to see a copy of the grading... BAJR more than happy to work with this and revamp the BAJR grades... as this would stand as a verified and workable template for change... and allow yearly Pay bargaining to start from a decent level.
great news.
Another day another WSI?
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Before you all get carried away - I see that the EH wages have no holiday, pension, sick or other entitlements such as overnight subs for working away from home and are for seven-eight weeks max. (BTW, thought BAJR didn't allow ads which didn't include the first of these). Not quite as attractive if rolled out across a full year is it? Are they five day a week jobs?
In the wider world, factor those costs in, add overheads and see what the likely effect is on companies currently running on very thin margins (ie just about every commercial company) in a highly competitive market, which is likely to get worse if the economy does what it appears it is about to do.
It is good to see EH putting up wages but they are operating in an artificial and self-contained environment where they set their own budgets for such projects.
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Hullo VoR. We obviously forgot to tick the holiday pay box when we put the advert in, which should be being corrected as I type. Archaeologists working for us are entitled to holidays on the basis of 25 days a year pro rata, plus any bank holidays that fall in the period of the contract. We also provide accommodation for staff; they each have to pay £10 per week towards the accommodation costs for reasons not entirely unconnected with the Inland Revenue. Sick pay and pensions are covered by the same terms and conditions for all EH staff - i.e. you are entitled to sick pay after four weeks' employment, and you need to be working for us for a year to join in our pension scheme. These are 5 days a week jobs.
Yes, we do generally only offer relatively-short contracts these days, but are operating within tight financial constraints.
Mr Hostie - I'll be in touch about the draft paper next week, off-list, when I return from my travels.
Happy to discuss further,
Brian
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Blimey English Heritage the supposed leading light in the world of English Archaeology! Remind me not to work for them. A good candidate to kick off another round of fantasy league I fear. Plus the fact after the pension contribution, accomodation tenner and travel to work expenses have been taken out you may as well join a voluntary dig.
What was the average price of a home in England again? Dream on folks.
Close enough for a country job!
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would not say it is as bad as that trowelhead.. considering everything... it is in fact quite good..
personal opinion
Another day another WSI?
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I think you are being a little unfair trowelhead.
An eight-week contract on above industry-average pay rates, with sick pay entitlement and subsidised accommodation. That sounds pretty good to me for staff at the level advertised.
About to be shot down in flames no doubt!
