25th February 2011, 09:05 AM
I ended up joining a Union, And we have spent last year discussing the Working Parrty for the Unionisation of Archaeology.
Given we were a voluntary body made up of everyone from Diggers Forum to consultants, University staff to unit staff, things move slowly, however, we have come up with a Diggers Charter that is in the final stages. And it is thanks to all those people that did get invovled that it got so far.
I still need to hear back from a couple of people, then we release it to the contractors and IfA and the Unions - then it is time to implement it.
The first part is ambitious but achievable; asking for basic rights to be signed up to.
Nobody would want to disagree with them, so the companies will hopefully sign up to the Charter - rights for equal opportunities - rights for drivers and driving time ( with the DF) - Rights for self employed staff - rights for fieldstaff.
Unionisation sits at the heart of this.
Recently a person was dismissed from a company under circumstances that were at the best unfair, they had not applied proper procedure and had in fact rewritten dismissal criteria in order to carry it out. IF this person had been in a union, the company would have been taken to task in the strongest possible way. If they they had been in a Union. !
PEople will need to see that the fear that certainly pervades the fieldstaff just now can be removed by Union membership. It also helps the contractors themselves, by giving them a certain acknowledgement that the staff are going to be working to the charter as well... it has to be two way...
So things are happening from this. It is hoped for May 1st the Charter will be ready.
Given we were a voluntary body made up of everyone from Diggers Forum to consultants, University staff to unit staff, things move slowly, however, we have come up with a Diggers Charter that is in the final stages. And it is thanks to all those people that did get invovled that it got so far.
I still need to hear back from a couple of people, then we release it to the contractors and IfA and the Unions - then it is time to implement it.
The first part is ambitious but achievable; asking for basic rights to be signed up to.
Nobody would want to disagree with them, so the companies will hopefully sign up to the Charter - rights for equal opportunities - rights for drivers and driving time ( with the DF) - Rights for self employed staff - rights for fieldstaff.
Unionisation sits at the heart of this.
Recently a person was dismissed from a company under circumstances that were at the best unfair, they had not applied proper procedure and had in fact rewritten dismissal criteria in order to carry it out. IF this person had been in a union, the company would have been taken to task in the strongest possible way. If they they had been in a Union. !
PEople will need to see that the fear that certainly pervades the fieldstaff just now can be removed by Union membership. It also helps the contractors themselves, by giving them a certain acknowledgement that the staff are going to be working to the charter as well... it has to be two way...
So things are happening from this. It is hoped for May 1st the Charter will be ready.