Employment Rights for 'self-employed' - Unite Union does its stuff

[chiz]

You have to ask the question - is this the probloem of the 'enabler' who can say... hey... they know the score (do they really?) or the newly fledged self employed person... ( are you?)

But surely the very fact that you are accepting the job as a freelancer accepts responsibility for your actions?:face-stir:

[BAJR Host]

and there is the question... personal responsibility? Choice? you decide... :face-angel:

Of course... unionisation will help :face-approve:

[Unitof1]

But hosty self employeds need at least an example of where unionism has helped self employment in archaeology.

What chiz is pointing out is that-accepting the job as a freelancer accepts responsibility- is responsibility for virtually everything that unionising thinks that it protects on behalf of the individual and the unions model is based on us and them, the employer and the worker.- master/servant, with the union collectivising the workers to negotiate with the (……. Self employment offers a possibility that we have a profession of equals, archaeologists each doing their bit of archaeology.

[simon johnson]

Lots of interesting comments: what do I do? I'm in a similair situation to Unit. To me, the overiding benefit of freelancing is the independance and control over what I do and for me the disadvantages are out-weighed by it. I tend to specialise in all things buildings orientated but will also undertake most small scale works so, like Unit, tend to avoid large scale evaluations or exacavtions. In terms of capacity and staffing, on large projects I would tend to act as a commissioing agant or sub-contract depending on the circumstances. When I do need staff I tend to rely on other freelancers: therre is the benefit Unit has already alluded to in reduced administration, but also because I don't see the point of taking on an employee if you can't offer them a reasonable length of contract. For clarity -the freelancers I use come to me as freelancers rather than me playing the capitalist enabler!!

In terms of my estimate about what percentage should be expected by a diiger, this was an intuative guestimate at the time of writing and I take Chiz's point that it may be too low; that said I was thinking in terms of a self-employed excavator whoose overheads in terms of equipment and resources would be less than say a freelance field officer or project manager which leads us back to the age-old central question of what is a reasonable wage or rate -perhaps a union could help?????????

[Unitof1]

[SIZE=3]I really doubt a day rate of 15-20% above the digger WAGE is a high enough margin to cover all the costs of self-employment?
[/SIZE]

I think the margin is in what it costs the client for an employed digger. The truth is that any employer has probably got to have margins at at least twice the diggers wage to afford a digger over the average time.

It seems to me that just on the diggers pre-tax wage self employed would be equal if not better off due to the allowable expenses, carry forwards and that includes the insurance which is a subject in its self. And then if they are better a self could undercut the employed that little bit more…but I would not suggest being slightly better off than a diggers wage as an archaeological career achievement. It might be at twice digger wage….and that margin I think is there to be had

To my mind whats going on is that we have 20% + NI contributions masked by 17.5 % VAT exemptions in a lot of the employed industry verses a employed non exempt units playing with self-employment and other production savings like remote report production.

We just don’t has a critical mass of self employeds and need a way to attract people who can handle it.

[GnomeKing]

interesting...

[Unitof1]

Gnome theres more, particularly sidetracks

What I have been toying with is that

What Geli needs is a charity or an association for self-employed archaeologists.

This idea came about from searching CBAs web pages, after a minor skirmish over Scottish Septemberisum allied with a fanatical notlikey of voulneetiterrs,

for self-employed. All I got is that Geli might like to gift aid the CBA his pittance and something I don’t know works if you make a loss for tax purposes

http://www.britarch.ac.uk/supportus/giftaid

this gift aid will then be used to

http://www.britarch.ac.uk/cba/objectives

although that might have changed after 2008! and it just might be that that the CBA are now solely concentrating on the plight of self employed archaeologists but I doubt it. They are very keen for some reason on under 25s. So what, I hear, you might say to yourself that the CBA is basically for the amateur public volly… and archaeology for all, but for many self employed this page is often of interest

http://www.britarch.ac.uk/cba/insurance

( which is exactly the same as this one
http://www.bajr.org/BAJRResources/insurance.asp )BAJR edit


and now the waters become murky because the dreaded ifa word is on that page (presumably if the page has not been up dated since before 2008 then that stands for institute of field archaeologists). First off what I wonders is does these two organisations actually subsidise that insurance? That would be good for your self employed. Is the subsidy more than the subscriptions to those organisations? That would be great value and the type of thing that a charity or an association for self-employed archaeologists would want to do.


Theres more if you arent asleep yet

Other income sources include membership subscriptions, the sale of publications, the provision of services (such as the CBA’s group insurance scheme)

[BAJR]

CBA and IfA (and BAJR) DO NOT provide insurance OR discounts on Insurance.

The insurance is provided by Towergate... talk to my friend Tariq Mian... he will sort you out...

see this document which was created by BAJR with his advice - though it is NOT in anyway a Towergate document...
http://www.bajr.org/Documents/27Insure.pdf

Insurance is complicated... only an insurance company can offer insurance.

[Gilraen]

Interesting debate, although everyone who becomes employed by any 'Unit' under the guise of 'wow - they are paying me to work' is a little naive.

Units these days are recruiting for numbers.

[Unitof1]

[SIZE=3]CBA and IfA (and BAJR) DO NOT provide insurance OR discounts on Insurance.

The insurance is provided by Towergate... talk to my friend Tariq Mian... he will sort you out...
[/SIZE]

We might be onto a knuckle here. None of them provide insurance or rather they are, including (), acting as brokers (a term that has no meaning in law) ….which is not the same thing as an Underwriter who does provide. It does seem to me that it is a sorry state that archaeology does not seem to have any relationship with an Underwriter.

CBA and IfA (and BAJR) DO NOT provide insurance OR discounts on Insurance.

Agreed, cba claim to generate income from it, so they make money on it somehow

and self employed insurance seems to shoot up every year