IfA Now have a policy on Self Employment

[Dinosaur]

No longer can you just divide the IfA minima by 233 working days and just pay that to 'freelance' diggers.

Quick bit of mental maths suggests self-employed diggers actually have 253 working days if they want them, which represents quite a lot more money PA than you are suggesting? - or have I misunderstood you?

[Unitof1]

medway blue

[SIZE=3]you then have the problem faced by most freelancers - when do you get your money? 30 days? 90 days? When they get paid?
[/SIZE]

I would go for payment before they handed over their context sheets.

AIFA

Principle II Dont hand over context sheets until you have been paid.

[Martin Locock]

I was looking forward to the day when Chartership was necessary to practice as an archaeologist.

[Unitof1]

chartership is a waste of time/life and the last gasp for those who set the ifa up

[P Prentice]

Quick bit of mental maths suggests self-employed diggers actually have 253 working days if they want them, which represents quite a lot more money PA than you are suggesting? - or have I misunderstood you?

quick bit of mental suggests that they would have 365 working days if they wanted them - but most people deserve weekends and holidays and time with their families etc even if patronising old lags didnt get them when they started out

233 is the figure most people will recognise as the working year

[Oxbeast]

The IfA policy is not just about charge out rates, but is also aiming to ensure that ROs keep within the law. The DF newsletter thingie mentions that units might have to provide an assessment from an HMRC status assessor that says that the roles that they are offering as SE really are SE. This is to try to get people to comply with the law and avoid bogus self employment.
"Should anyone be a self employed digger?"
No reason why not, but it depends on how the job is defined.

[Martin Locock]

I would be deeply suspicious of the motives of an archaeological contractor who decided that they would create a field team with a substantial SE element. In terms of quality assurance, you end up with 'staff' you cannot control or discipline, working to their own methods, but for whom you are ultimately liable. In terms of admin, you don't have to run a payroll system and therefore worry about holiday pay and sick pay, staff development etc. And travel and subsistence is not your problem. In short, it appears to be a cowboy's charter.

[Wax]

Indeed there is no reason why some one should not be a self employed digger except the obvious one that nine times out of ten it is the employer trying to cut staffing costs. And how many self employed diggers out there have or can afford the level of insurance they really need? How many employers ask to see the insurance details of those they are taking on as self employed? ( I have a pretty high level of insurance public liability and professional indemnity and though It can be offset against tax it is a substantial sum of money)

[Unitof1]

The IfA policy is not just about charge out rates,

yes it is, so is chizes letter

If it was trying to be helpful to diggers it would give advice like dont hand over the context sheets until you have been paid.

Martine listen to your self-

you end up with "staff"

"....." you already know that you were using the wrong term because staff is an employment term. Cant say that I would want to "work" for you with all your control and disipline. In my world if you dont like my product dont buy it. You dont employ the self employed, you buy a product off them-fellow archaeologist Mate

[Martin Locock]

When to hand over context sheets, or be paid, isn't an archaeological question: I don't see why a professional institute would be expected to rule or advise on this.