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24th April 2007, 11:23 AM
I agree with gardener. I can spend 1 minute on this, or i could just not care at all. At least someone (who is not an archaeologist) has made an effort on our behalf.
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24th April 2007, 11:26 AM
Nice to see you back VoR... and making people feel guilty about 1 minute of their life.. people could do both ... taking up 2 minutes.
As to not having an effect... well we'll see.
Nothing ventured... ! :face-huh:
We should also look to what we are doing to manage this issue...
"No job worth doing was ever done on time or under budget.."
Khufu
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24th April 2007, 01:50 PM
Posted by Voice of Reason:
Quote:quote:...wouldn't energies be better spent focusing on something which might have an effect, rather than spending time completing, and mobilising people to complete, petitions to people who a. don't care and b. can't do anything about it.
Well, the government is made up of politicians. They only care about anything if they are convinced that voters care about it. I understand that politicians operate on the principle that for every person that writes to them on a given topic, somewhere from 10 to 100 people care about the topic. Presumably there is a similar calculation for petitions.
In terms of whether the government can do anything about it - well, they may be able to do something about formal recognition as professionals (chartered status?). Specifically on wages, we live in a market economy, and the government don't regulate wages in the commercial sector.
1man1desk
to let, fully furnished
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24th April 2007, 06:09 PM
Im with gardener on this...the one thing this govenment love is publicity and if you get loads to sign they will take notice. Looking for blimp so i can advertise the weblink...oh no im on poor wages and dont get paid till friday [?]
May god go with you in all the dark places you must walk.
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24th April 2007, 09:00 PM
I logged onto to the petition to sign and decided against it when I saw the wording.
"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Ensure that Archaeologist be recognized as professionals, and get paid appropriately.
Archaeology is now being seen as a profession. The Majority of Archaeologists are badly paid, on unsecure contracts and generally without hope of sick leave or holiday pay. For a profession this is an unbelieveable circumstance. Progress should be made. Surely the minister in charge of culture should be actively tackling this problem".
holiday pay is now payable by law.
Everbody is entitled to stat sick pay.
Is the petition saying that the majority of archaeological employers are breaking the law.
We also have the IFA wage guidelines ....
To be effective such petitions must be factually correct. 275 have signed by 20:00
Peter
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24th April 2007, 11:48 PM
Signatures: 300 - 22:42pm
"unsecure contracts and generally without hope of sick leave or holiday pay"
SSP (yes) but Sick Leave? not for a day here or there.. if you are on a three month contract - and you take a day off because you are ill? Holiday pay... well plenty of confusion about how much (though not on BAJR ... cue VoMD
)
I would urge you to sign Peter... nay plead with you.... If this gets noticed.. it will start a process... I have just spent the evening being buttonholed (steady) by Rhona Brankin who is desparate to see heritage count in the UK... (hey... it may be votes... but votes = a stronger position for us...) If we show a will.... ?? Lets do it!
pretty please Peter! She may not be quite factually correct... but hey... she did it when we did not...
prett pretty..... and a cherry! (or at least a pint!)
"No job worth doing was ever done on time or under budget.."
Khufu
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25th April 2007, 12:58 AM
In my view this is a good start and thanks to Andrena Crawford for starting the petition and also thanks to ecmgardner for bringing to our attention, I would never have heard about it if it wasnt posted on BAJR.
And I ecourage everyone to sign it as it a begining. Why is it that whenever somthing good is being done people want to torpedo it, people sign petitions for less.
Voice of Reason if you feel this is a worthless and pointless excersise do not participate..this is your right but then do you have any right to then complain about standards, condtions or pay if you are not willing take part in attempts to improves the genral state of archaeologists.
Its hard enough when your out on the field to get organised as a group, with people being stuck between several unions/organisations at least this petition lets us speak as one voice rather than as a mob all trying to be heard at once.
303 signitures at midnight
May god go with you in all the dark places you must walk.
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25th April 2007, 08:01 AM
Just logged in and signed - a good spread of people there by the look.
As someone else has read, the blurb says:
Please note that to keep the system manageable, and justify use of resources, we can usually only respond to serious petitions of 200 signatures or more
There's wriggle room there....
310 by 7am
I maiali sono alimentati e aspettano per volare
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25th April 2007, 10:10 AM
Ahhh, semantics. Well, sit and procrastinate. I (as many others)know people on crap wages, crap conditions, short term contracts etc, etc. I realise that a lot will not apply to some (government archy's get, sick pay and holidays), and obviously there are many out there who are obviously very contented with their lot(?). It's a start isn't it? I agree with others rights to not sign. But if you aren't going to sign, allow others to determine whether they want to or not without this on-going negativity. :face-huh:
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25th April 2007, 12:50 PM
375 signatures.
Things like this are worthwhile with 375 signatures somebody in government will look into the situation. They will see that sick pay is now (or will be shortly) the industry norm thanks to the IFA.
Holiday pay - the government made this complusory last year.
To be effective things like this must be well informed.
I will prob sign it though
Peter