18th February 2012, 05:53 PM
This is definitely an area for concern as the pay and conditions are poor enough without adding another level of those who are even worse off!
When I starting digging ten years ago I got a job as a site assistant with only my university excavation experience, no commercial experience at all and this was the same for those of my friends who went into digging. And we were paid the BAJR wage for a site assistant. Then a few years later there seemed to be a new grade of trainee introduced for those with less than 6months commercial digging experience which was lower than my starting wage had been years before.... and now this!
Do we want archaeology to be a profession where new starters are expected to volunteer for an unspecified time period before entering a badly paid unstable job? The BAJR/IFA minimum wages are there for a reason so how can no pay be a way to get around this!!!!!
Volunteering for a charity or community group is one thing - I do it myself - but for a commercial unit! It is very short sighted of those who take these positions - if you take this job for no pay what is the incentive for the position to be made paid. Think on you are making things worse not only for yourself but for everyone coming after you
When I starting digging ten years ago I got a job as a site assistant with only my university excavation experience, no commercial experience at all and this was the same for those of my friends who went into digging. And we were paid the BAJR wage for a site assistant. Then a few years later there seemed to be a new grade of trainee introduced for those with less than 6months commercial digging experience which was lower than my starting wage had been years before.... and now this!
Do we want archaeology to be a profession where new starters are expected to volunteer for an unspecified time period before entering a badly paid unstable job? The BAJR/IFA minimum wages are there for a reason so how can no pay be a way to get around this!!!!!
Volunteering for a charity or community group is one thing - I do it myself - but for a commercial unit! It is very short sighted of those who take these positions - if you take this job for no pay what is the incentive for the position to be made paid. Think on you are making things worse not only for yourself but for everyone coming after you