11th November 2009, 10:06 AM
I don't agree that anyone on site should get a pay cut, I don't particularly agree that anyone off site should get a pay cut. I would like more wages for site staff, linked to better site staff. Pay peanuts get monkeys....There are two problems in archaeology that are the crux of our situation:
There are too many unskilled, untrained new entrants who are willing to work for less to get their foot on the ladder, and the units are too scared of being undercut to value what they do properly, and charge accordingly. There is no reason why we have to depress wages just because we are in a recession. As long as the county archs hold their ground, then the archaeology has to be done. FAME has been talking about small, nonRO units undercutting, but they have led the way by cutting accomodation and subs.
It may be callous and 'unfair', but I'd prefer the skilled archaeologists got the jobs during this downturn, and the new starters didn't get any work. It would be kinder to them after all! allow the industry to retain skills, it would be better for the units and the archaeology, and 90% of the new starters would have left archaeology in 5 years anyway, so whats the problem? Increasingly it appears that we are a victim of our own success, and we need to control supply by having skills based entry bars.
There are too many unskilled, untrained new entrants who are willing to work for less to get their foot on the ladder, and the units are too scared of being undercut to value what they do properly, and charge accordingly. There is no reason why we have to depress wages just because we are in a recession. As long as the county archs hold their ground, then the archaeology has to be done. FAME has been talking about small, nonRO units undercutting, but they have led the way by cutting accomodation and subs.
It may be callous and 'unfair', but I'd prefer the skilled archaeologists got the jobs during this downturn, and the new starters didn't get any work. It would be kinder to them after all! allow the industry to retain skills, it would be better for the units and the archaeology, and 90% of the new starters would have left archaeology in 5 years anyway, so whats the problem? Increasingly it appears that we are a victim of our own success, and we need to control supply by having skills based entry bars.