Birmingham Archaeology redundancies

[BAJR]

Vuples has a fab way of coming in to a serious thread and worrying about stress relieving ones... bundle of fun you must be.! I could not help notice that you were unable to add to the thread, rather whine about others.

And back to the serious thread (yes amazingly you can have both and have many of them) I am a dear friend of BA.. have liked what they do and never heard a bad word either... and yes I do have a dossier of bad words! Making them fight for 1/4 of the jobs is in a word sick... and will it be GUARD next... so close ? and will some be dafe? some be forced to perform and try and keep their job. What the hell is the matter with archaeology just now... and what union is helping here? I would like to know more about why this happened. and as Deadly said... better to know whys rather than just steam in with ill advised comment.

[Unitof1]

[SIZE=3]and what union is helping here.

[/SIZE]

Ahrr there in lies the nature of the beast.

Should it be a higher education union,
http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=1685
a student union,
http://www.guildofstudents.com/
a charity union,
http://www.worksmart.org.uk/career/can_i_join_a_union_if_i
a civil service union.
http://www.pcs.org.uk/

Now what these Unwanted 27 should do is set up their own unit
but wait then they will find that they don?t have a whole smorgasbord of subsidies/facilities, will they silent bob, and they will start to realise what advantages they let slip through their fingers.

Hosty would like to know more about

[SIZE=3]why this happened. and as Deadly said... better to know whys rather than just steam in with ill advised comment.

[/SIZE]

Maybe we should be studying the problems of charity education trusts/institutions which could be that they being not-for-profit struggle to diversify and also to carry profit over from the good times into the bad.

Do the Birmingham unit publish their accounts anywhere? I suspect not. But then they are the commercial arm of the Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity which is but a triumvirate of distinct teams; Birmingham Archaeology Heritage Services, the Visual and Spatial Technology Centre (VISTA) and Birmingham Archaeo-Environmental (BAE).

And

[SIZE=3]Each of the groups is responsible for the undertaking of commercial projects and services, the development of research projects and the delivery of postgraduate and professional training via taught Masters programmes and CPD workshops.

[/SIZE]

Wow I imagine that to be a complicated account to sort out

But the institute is but a part of the schools and departments of the university of Birmingham

Which is

[SIZE=3]a legally independent, chartered organisation, which is also an exempt charity (they like to get that exempt in don?t they). It is a private institution which receives significant public funding, principally from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE).

[/SIZE]

Take a breath

because not only is the virtual reality which is Birmingham archaeology all of the above it is also a Registered Organisation.

Corr. We call on Vulpes to give us a poem

Oh Birmingham archaeology
Is a Registered Organisation
La la la

http://www.archaeologists.net/sites/default/files/node-files/ifa_organisation_reg.pdf

now this registration will ensure that the ?organisation? is a proper fit to carryout the ?work? in accordance with the Code of conduct and other by-laws of the Institute for Archaeologists. This is what I call an assurance. Look there is a complicated

[SIZE=3]In the special case of an organisation constituted as a
cooperative in accordance with the model Memorandum and
Articles of Association of the Industrial Common Ownership
Movement or similar, a minimum of three-quarters of the
members of the cooperative, or two-thirds if there are only
three members, will be deemed to hold Responsible Posts
and must at all times be Members (MIfA) unless otherwise
agreed by Council. In this case, the obligations of holders of
Responsible Posts under rules 1.12 and 1.13 of the Code of
conduct are deemed to extend throughout the membership of
and to all employees of the cooperative.
Council may also recognise more than one Responsible Post
for a registered organisation in the case of partnerships, job
shares or organisations with more than one division of equal
status carrying out historic environment work.
[/SIZE]

Did you know that three quarters of a coop must be members if you are a cooperative but what is Birmingham archaeology. Oh the RO system really doesn?t say does it. Probably did not bother about its accounts or governance

It does say

[SIZE=3]To be registered the organisation must adopt a resolution of
the board of directors (if a company), partners (if a
partnership), committee or similar (if a local authority),
trustees (if a trust) or other governing body, stating the
following:
?All (archaeological/historic environment) work of (the
organisation) shall be carried out in accordance with the
Code of conduct and other by-laws of the Institute for
Archaeologists?
Where the organisation is an incorporated company with a
Memorandum and Articles of Association, the organisation
shall on request provide confirmation that these do not
conflict with the Code of conduct and by-laws of the IfA.
[/SIZE]

So at some stage this mob http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/university/governance/council.aspx

Presumably adopted a resolution
?All (archaeological/historic environment) work of (the
organisation) shall be carried out in accordance with the
Code of conduct and other by-laws of the Institute for
Archaeologists?
which I dont believe, does that mean that the theoretical physics department and the arts facilty has to carry out its whatsits in accordance to ify

but if its true then the Unwanted 27 can look to principle 5 of the code

[SIZE=3]Principle 5
The member shall recognise the aspirations of employees,
colleagues and helpers with regard to all matters relating to
employment, including career development, health and safety,
terms and conditions of employment and equality of
opportunity.
[/SIZE]

Which means dilily squwit in swhali

[beamo]

Yes - the constitution of the various elements of this contractor is somewhat complex, and certainly I would be very worried at the moment if I worked for any archaeological contractor that is based (tenuously or otherwise) with a higher education establishment or indeed within any public sector body (museum, county council, quango etc).

However this should not prevent us from understanding that good archaeologists with years of experience and excellent reputations are likely to lose their jobs as a result of this decision - itself a result of the current economic circumstances. Even if we feel that the marketplace will ultimately benefit from all contractors being purely prviate sector based (and I for one am not yet convinced of this) it should still not prevent us from offering our support and best wishes.

Beamo

[ex-archaeologist]

I think this thread may have served its purpose in alerting archaeologists to a serious situation at a major unit, given that people are losing their jobs I am not sure how appropriate some of the speculation is.

[Unitof1]

Even if we feel that the marketplace will ultimately benefit from all contractors being purely prviate sector based (and I for one am not yet convinced of this) it should still not prevent us from offering our support and best wishes.

Best wishes yes but support in the marketplace as a private sector worker where they are still many who are not convinced that the marketplace will ultimately benefit from all contractors being purely prviate sector based. That’s a very foggy place. I have to treat it as the market place but others can treat it as their tax exempt subsidised cradle including the eat their own cake ifa. I wonder what support they are giving/gave/will give? Will they ask for transparency from their ROs to their accounts, governance? Do they even do that in confidence?

Had enough ex-archaeologist welcome to the market place where you can spend the rest of your life doing worthless watching briefs and small negative evaluations.

[Madweasels]

Heads up now everybody for news coming out of Nottinghamshire.

https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webad...=D&P=48012

Proposed cuts to County Council's Conservation Budget could see 33 posts cut to 6, with no archaeologists left there.

Thin edge of the national wedge...

[Dirty Boy]

Heads up now everybody for news coming out of Nottinghamshire.

https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webad...=D&P=48012

Proposed cuts to County Council's Conservation Budget could see 33 posts cut to 6, with no archaeologists left there.

Thin edge of the national wedge...

Sigh. It begins here. You'd have to hope they take PPS5 as "legislation" and keep at least one archaeologist on staff.
Yet again another piece of complete council nonsense - what on earth is an "intelligent client"?

[vulpes]

PPS5 is 'Policy' DB. Nothing more. PPS5 just states that LPAs should 'have access to' a HER and specialist advice. It doesn't say they must employ people directly to do that. Sad but true. The 'dead' Heritage Bill would have sorted that.

But, yeah there will, no doubt be more to come. Everyone in Local Govt is having to justify their existence.

[Dirty Boy]

Aye I know. I have friends in HER's who have gotten legal advice due to clients not paying for post-ex work, and the lawyers saying "Can't do a thing ".

Just hoping a council stupid enough to write "intelligent client" wouldn't grasp such high brow subjects as the hierarchy of legislation...

[BAJR]

Is this where it starts? Is this our double dip? WE better get into this.. but we need to have the information of the whys... I think it is absulutely stupidity to make cuts like that to Notts.. beyond stupid, it is like throwing everything out the ship to weather the storm, only to realise that when the storm is over, you also through over the rudder, water, food, .... etc. A short termism and another reason to ask WHY the Heritage bill was is dead.

Is anyone doing anything? If so it would be nice to know.