Quote:quote:Originally posted by drpeterwardle
For those that donât know a sole trader is a business entity which in not a limited company or a partnership which has one person in charge of it. Freelancer is a sole trader, in many respects without employees: in contrast a sole trader can run a multi-million pound organisation employing hundreds of people.
Yes the freelancer and sole trader are under represented. One way this manifests itself is in comments like âthe most dubious small organisationsâ, âone-man-bandsâ or one man and his dog organisations these are commonly held prejudices. Sole traders and freelancers have been around in archaeology a long time (as I discussed at BAJR 2006).
Small is beautiful especially when it comes to business. Size does not imply quality - far from it. We have an important role to play in modern day archaeology and should be free to do and this role should be recognised by all.
This to my mind this is why an organisation to represent us is needed and in particular to ensure that organisations like the IFA and BAJR do not impose things on us that make it difficult to trade or make for unfair competition.
RAO are fine but are disproportionately expensive for small organisations. SCAUM is a useful organisation but again it represents in the main the larger organisations.
Independence is important to me and it is entirely up to me what I charge and how much I pay (assuming pay and conditions are above legal minima). To say that it is wrong for me to do charity work is outrageous and to suggest that this means that I will pay my staff badly because of it simply misses the point. I do not get paid for my work for BAJR for example.
Some good points are being made: for example a mechanism for data being exchanged.
I agree with 1man1desk above all else this organisation should not be an alternative to either IFA or IHBC.
Peter Wardle
Useful outline of the various arrangements of smaller or individual workers, although again not really including smaller organisations that are companies but only employ a handful of people, of which there are undoubtedly many examples and who are also not well represented.
I certainly didn't mean to attack all one-man-bands (and for that matter I don't see the term one-man-bands are derogatory, it's just a useful short hand, especially if I don't know the exact company structure). Unfortunately, some of the worst reports I have ever seen have been by 'one-man-bands'. That's not to say I haven't seen bad reports or work by larger organisations, but there tends to be a great sense of quality control in my experience. How much individuals charge is entirely up to them, but if they are getting away with poor work they can probably charge very little and still earn a reasonable living.
I certainly wasn't suggesting that doing charity work is wrong, or that in charging lower rates for certain projects would mean pay cuts all round - after all a 10% sale in a shop doesn't (I presume) mean a 10% cut in wages for the staff! It was more concerning the notion that a community project might deserves a lower rate when some have access to pretty large sums of money. Anyway, it is not really relevant to this topic.
I would still personally prefer to see a 'BAJR Federation' doing something different rather than aping the IFA and/or Prospect. How about lobbying curators independently on issues of standards or dealing anonymously with complaints? There are certainly things I would like to complain to curators about but I am not willing to potentially damage any good working relationship. Sometimes I feel the IFA is perhaps a bit too close to be able to do this effectively, but I'm not sure. Would they even consider it their role?
BAJRFed might need to be totally independant for this to work though.
