Fair pay practice tools: Unofficial Job House and Standard Regulations on Secondary Employment Conditions for Archaeology.

Fair pay practice tools

The Chain Table on Archaeology c.s. hereby presents an unofficial Job Classification and a Standard Regulation on Secondary Conditions of Employment. On the basis of a specific Labor Monitor and additional in-depth research at businesses and government agencies, this Job House contains five main categories, each with three types of jobs. These are provided with the current remunerations. They are: employee, project leader, (material) specialist, depot manager, consultant. In addition, many sectors of archaeology can be described as adjacent. For this reason, the Standard Regulations were drawn up on the basis of a detailed comparison with four existing adjoining collective agreements and a revoked archaeological collective agreement. These regulations contain general recommendations to all businesses and organizations in this sub-sector, particularly those without a collective agreement, as well as considerations for individual assessment for each business or organization.

Practice tools:

FairPACCT Chain Table Archaeology fair pay practice tool 1:
Unofficial Function House Archaeology.

FairPACCT Chain Table Archaeology fair pay practice tool 2:
Standard arrangement for secondary benefits archaeology.

Review of consultation

The consultation did not result in responses that gave rise to changes to the chain table’s earlier fair pay proposals. Thus, these have now become two final practice instruments.

Looking ahead to additional activities

The Council for Culture advocated a collective bargaining agreement for excavation companies and a new professional organization for archaeologists in February 2022. In her November 2022 policy response, the State Secretary of OCW considers this primarily an advice to the sector. But she did provide stimulus money for the formation of a professional association.
Working people have started working on this: through fairPACCT they can use a content advisor, and they have recently reached out financially to the Ministry of OCW.

The chain table recently engaged Leeuwendaal, a recognized job evaluation agency, to create an official Job House for archaeology from January, with fair pay rewards. This agency is active in adjacent sectors such as for municipalities/regional environmental services and museums. In addition, the chain table is at an advanced stage with three memoranda on specific topics: the position of self-employed workers; forms and duration of contracts; safety and working conditions. FairPACCT and the chain table are hoping for more financial incentives from the state for archaeological work, which is currently required by law but not subsidized at all. Just as these monies have been put on hold for fair pay in the publicly subsidized parts of the cultural sector. The current market with contracts by private parties and tenders by the governments leads to low prices and few opportunities for good working conditions. The chain table wants to work, preferably together with other chain tables, to improve this. For example, the national government and government services should set a good example in tenders aimed at a fair price and fair remuneration.