10th November 2009, 07:28 PM
Well said Julie. I also would like to applaud Bradders for having the guts to stand up and tell it how it is for many of us who have been working at the sharp end in commercial archaeology, I've had many similar experiences, for instance;
1.The huge infrastructure job a few years ago where we were entitled to something in the region of ?35 per day (paid by the main client) for our subsistance allowance. Of course we never saw this as it was directed through our immediate employers. The accomodation we were provided with would have struggled to fetch a price of ?35 per week. To call them hovels would be an insult to hovels. I wonder if the rest of the money went on post-ex, eh?
2. Being told by a county mountie who was standing a meter above me at the side of my eval trench that the feature I was digging was "plainly a tree throw". He wasn't too amused when I pointed out that the "tree throw" was actually jam packed with a series of definable tip lines of burnt flint debitage. It gets better; the spineless area supervisor later approached me and told me to destroy any documentation I'd carried out on the "tree throw". Wonder what he did with the bags of finds!
diggingthedirt may have a point to some extent when he says that;
"It's more complicated than just saying that manager grade staff should take a pay cut-in many instances they already have."
Well maybe, "in many instances" they have. However, the idea of folk similar to myself agreeing to a pay cut when the levels of our pay are already so abysmal is not going to wash with me. Maybe the manager grade staff may have to get their backsides out of their offices and go dig for a living if they find they can't attract enough experienced diggers willing to work for a pittance, pay for their own transport to site, provide their own equipment and find their own accomodation, usually a tent.
1.The huge infrastructure job a few years ago where we were entitled to something in the region of ?35 per day (paid by the main client) for our subsistance allowance. Of course we never saw this as it was directed through our immediate employers. The accomodation we were provided with would have struggled to fetch a price of ?35 per week. To call them hovels would be an insult to hovels. I wonder if the rest of the money went on post-ex, eh?
2. Being told by a county mountie who was standing a meter above me at the side of my eval trench that the feature I was digging was "plainly a tree throw". He wasn't too amused when I pointed out that the "tree throw" was actually jam packed with a series of definable tip lines of burnt flint debitage. It gets better; the spineless area supervisor later approached me and told me to destroy any documentation I'd carried out on the "tree throw". Wonder what he did with the bags of finds!
diggingthedirt may have a point to some extent when he says that;
"It's more complicated than just saying that manager grade staff should take a pay cut-in many instances they already have."
Well maybe, "in many instances" they have. However, the idea of folk similar to myself agreeing to a pay cut when the levels of our pay are already so abysmal is not going to wash with me. Maybe the manager grade staff may have to get their backsides out of their offices and go dig for a living if they find they can't attract enough experienced diggers willing to work for a pittance, pay for their own transport to site, provide their own equipment and find their own accomodation, usually a tent.