Open letter to IFA Council

This is the text of an open letter sent from
The Digger to the IFA Council on the eve
of the 2003 IFA Conference in Bangor.

Dear IFA Council,

As the ruling body of the Institute of Field Archaeologists, you have the power to rule on the level of IFA recommended pay rates. Many employers of archaeologists use these rates when they set the pay of their staff. Increasing the recommended pay rates would have an immediate affect on the lives of thousands of archaeologists and would be a big step in tackling low pay in the industry.

In the APPAG Parliamentary hearings last year, Peter Hinton, the head of the IFA, denied that there was a crisis in archaeology. Yet the reality of low pay and the lack of a career structure mean that crisis is a regular feature of diggers' lives. Every time an archaeologist is turned down for a mortgage, or fails to scrape together the deposit for a rented property, it is a crisis. Every time an archaeologist loses their job and has to start again with another employer at the bottom of the 'career ladder,' or misses out on the training they deserve, it is a crisis. The IFA seems detached from the reality faced by many that it claims to represent.

It's not that there is no money in archaeology. The IFA itself estimates that archaeology contributes £100 million to the economy, and archaeological sites yield big profits to developers. Letters to The Digger confirm that other contractors are astonished to learn how little archaeologists are paid, despite high practical skills and/or good academic qualifications. We all know many excellent and capable archaeologists who have been forced out of the profession because of poor pay, poor job security and no hope of moving up a career ladder.

Recently MPs and peers in the All Party Parliamentary Archaeology Group (APPAG) published a report into the state of archaeology in the UK. The report recommended that: 'There is an urgent need to improve pay and conditions for employment in field archaeology so that they are commensurate with graduate entry level in allied professions, such as local authority planning officers, civil engineers and university lecturers.' This is about £16,000-19,000 pa. What is the IFA doing to implement this recommendation?

Last year The Digger and BAJR launched the Petition for Change. The petition calls for a standardised career structure and for the IFA to increase its minimum recommended pay rate to the level deemed by the European Union necessary to lead a decent life (the European Decency Threshold). On current figures, updated since the Petition was launched, this equates to £316 per week.

Hundreds of archaeologists and heritage workers from across the country have already signed the petition, and 400 backed it in an online poll. The petition also gained the support of leading members of the Prospect union's Archaeology Branch and of the union's Museum of London branch.

When will the IFA implement these changes? We hope that this month's IFA conference will begin to tackle the deep-rooted problems in the profession. However, if the IFA continues to ignore these problems, many archaeologists will rightly question the relevance of the IFA, and its viability in representing their interests.

Read more about Council of Europe Decency Threshold at http://www.lowpayunit.org.uk/minwage/Councilofeurope.shtml