Birmingham Archaeology redundancies

[Silent Bob]

Perhaps they should put some of that Saxon gold into an envelope and send it off to Dale Winton?

Seriously though. If Birmingham are screwed and Cotswolds and Archaeological Investigations (nee Hereford) have been 'merged' then who else is next in the Midlands. Things don't look too great.

It is probably good news for the very big and the very small units. It probably isn't good news for the archaeology.

[Hal Dalwood]

The facts are that 40 or so staff of Birmingham Archaeology were handed their redundancy notices early last week, and they were all invited to reapply for 13 posts. There is a consultation period with unions and staff so the numbers are not definitive. The biggest impact will be on the contracting side of the organisation, as opposed to VISTA and the environmental archaeology group (see their website for what these groups do).

It is very sad. Many colleagues are going to lose their jobs, that is certain.

[deadlylampshade]

No more on the whys and wherefores of this? Or are we still all too busy writing silly little haiku, drinking in imaginary bars and slating anyone who's ever stopped to think about why we do what we do? :face-huh:

Perhaps we are patiently waiting for the facts to emerge (as they seem to be) before leaping to conclusions, ranting without cause and sticking pins in effiges that don't deserve them.

Patience is a virtue most archaeologists should cherish I wold have thought.:face-approve:

In the meantime, going to the cyber bar...

[tinuviel23]

There seem to be very few jobs in archaeology at the moment anyway.. I seem to have been looking forever

[JSA]

No more on the whys and wherefores of this? Or are we still all too busy writing silly little haiku, drinking in imaginary bars and slating anyone who's ever stopped to think about why we do what we do? :face-huh:

Come on Vulp, that's what BAJR is all about, ask a question about archaeology and you'll be lucky to get two facetious replies. On a serious note, this is bad news, Birmingham were one of the very few units I've never heard a single bad word about.

[Unitof1]

[SIZE=3]Birmingham were one of the very few units I've never heard a single bad word about

[/SIZE]

[SIZE=3]Come on Vulp, that's what BAJR is all about, ask a question about archaeology and you'll be lucky to get two facetious replies. On a serious note, this is bad news.

[/SIZE]

Who is it bad news for?

Commercial archaeology or for universities trying to run commercial units?

[Silent Bob]

It is bad news for all of the people who have worked there for a long time and won't have jobs. Especially if they don't want to go off and form their own one man band companies and spend the rest of their lives doing worthless watching briefs and small negative evaluations.

[Unitof1]

[SIZE=3]The facts are that 40 or so staff of Birmingham Archaeology were handed their redundancy notices early last week, and they were all invited to reapply for 13 posts.

[/SIZE]

From the sounds of it the unit is not dead, and instead of the “management” –I don’t know how they are differentiated from the workers (could it be some pension differential?) instead of selecting 27 long serving workers for redundancy they appear to have elected to make 40 long serving workers redundant and then invite them to apply for presumably new (and unlucky) 13 jobs. Now I don’t know about the legalities of this but
http://www.cityredundancies.co.uk/redundancyentitlements.html

may be of interest. Isnt that an more expensive way to do things as well, give everybody redundancy payments and then undertake an expensive recruitment to take the cheapest back on?

But then they are not interested in working for themselves and forming their own one person band companies and spend the rest of their lives doing worthless watching briefs and small negative evaluations. Instead they presumably think anything -a virtual reality something called Birmingham archaeology which does not appear to be a charity or a limited company but a so called trading arm of an institute which also seems to be virtual reality structure within a higher education establishment…tells them to do will be alright. Its all ivory towers in search of sensible archaeology to me.

ps will they keep those with the biggest back log or get rid of them and let somebody else write the jobs up. We watch and wait (worthlessly)

[J.McGraw]

Isnt that an more expensive way to do things as well, give everybody redundancy payments and then undertake an expensive recruitment to take the cheapest back on?

As far as I understand it, it means that the company have said there will be 13 jobs available, and have invited everyone to apply for these. The 13 that get the jobs wouldn't be paid redundancy, because they won't be made redundant. That's what happened when I went through it. I think it's to make the process seem fairer, because everyone starts in the same position, and it lets each employee put across their full range of skills, which the company might not be aware of. I don't know about expense, and it doesn't make things easier, but at least everyone gets the same chance. Theoretically.

[monty]

Real bad news....... I had a great time working for 'em as a digger...and the staff were great too ..... only hoping things get better and the redundant staff find work asap ...good luck !