3rd December 2005, 05:03 PM
Quote:quote:I think many diggers see the market in archaeology as being the scource of low wages, short contracts, shoddy archaeology and all the other ills that get discussed on this forum(originally posted by Real Job)
Well, that might be true if these problems had started or got worse when the free-market system came in. For those of us old enough to have been working in the field both before and after the advent of PPG16 and competitive tendering, it is clear that pay, conditions of employment (if any) and the quality of (rescue) archaeological work done were all worse beforehand. There were significant improvements immediately after, and some additional progress when the IFA first brought in their recommended pay minima. These improvements were not enough, and did not form a sustained trend, but the old public-sector funded, local-unit-monopoly system was certainly (even) worse for the workers than the present system.
1man1desk
to let, fully furnished