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THE ARCHAEOLOGY FIRM at the centre of an industrial relations row with the trade union Unite has denied it is in dispute with its workers, or that they are unfairly paid.
There have been a number of strike days at sites in Dublin and Cork in recent weeks as workers demand an improvement in pay. The Irish Archaeological Consultancy (IAC) has rejected requests by Unite to engage in negotiations at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).
The company said this is because it is already paying more than the union has negotiated in a recent deal with another company.
“IAC is not in dispute with its employees; it is in disagreement with a third-party, the trade union Unite – an organisation with its own interests which is endeavouring to disrupt the working lives of our employees and our company,” Rob Lynch, managing director of the company told TheJournal.ie.
“IAC have communicated this, as well as the fact the company is paying in excess of the Unite pay claim, on a number of occasions to the WRC.”
He claimed the firm is paying archaeologists 7% more than a pay claim by Unite in February this year and that its rates exceed those in an agreement reached between the union and another major commercial archaeology company.
On all new projects IAC are paying our archaeologists 10% more than the rate recently negotiated by Unite, on behalf their members, and this other company. On all new projects IAC are currently paying our archaeologists 5.3% more than Unite members will get paid by the end of 2020 under the rates recently negotiated between Unite and this other company.
‘Badly paid’
Unite has said its members’ contracts currently stipulate an hourly wage of €12.50 and that rates do not take into account the precarious nature of the job.
“I don’t think people realise – when you tell people you’re an archaeologist they say ‘oh wow, great job’. People just presume, they don’t know that it’s really badly paid, you’re out there in this weather,” Jean O’Dowd, Unite archaeology branch chair said last week.
The Portmarnock crowd are finishing today and they only found that out last week, so they had a week’s notice to find a new job. That’s constant and that’s not taken into consideration in pay.
O’Dowd said the industrial action will continue.
A clear pathway
Lynch said it introduced a new career development structure in August this year to offer “a clear pathway to employees to map their career progression”. This system, it said, will reward qualifications and experience accumulated by staff and will be phased across all projects by the end of November.
“IAC respects the rights of each employee and we give this effect by determining pay and conditions with employees directly.
“The company also respects the right of anyone to join a trade union. This is something that we have previously communicated with all our staff. The company and individual employees also have rights: these include the right not to be obliged to communicate with each other through a third party,” he added.
“This is the path which our company will continue to pursue.”
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Not a lot for 6 national parks and 5 nature reserves – to do anything much.
Indeed , €500,000 seems a tad insignificant considering all the money wasted on unnecessary quangos on a weekly basis.
Not to mention the outrageous consultant fees prayed by the state to organisations like PwC and EY.
New litter bins..
@Tony Skillington: Believe it or not Tony, the policy now is to take your litter home. They’re removing them everywhere.
@Mahmoud O’Connell: A paltry sum and where’s all our indigenous forests? eaten away by sheep and cows!
@Diogenes: Absolutely. European payments for farmers has resulted in the total annihilation of our wild flower and trees – The seedling can’t get beyong 1cm before being devoured. People see green countryside fields and think wonderful wildlife when in reality they are green deserts – no foods or habitat for our wildlife. One plant only – perennial rye-grass to feed our livestock obsession.
Our woodlands are coniferous foreign plantations which acidify our soils and waterways damaging native wildlife and fish stocks. Our soils are eroding and we are being flooded due to the loss of valuable native tree species.
Solutions: Plant locally sourced native broadleaf trees especially on poor quality land and hills/mountains. Plant native wildflowers. Stop payments that encourage maximum grazing herd numbers.
…Ballycroy National Park is the perfect example of all that is disastrous in Irish parks – overgrazed with drops of conifer plantations here and there. The mixed native temperate rain forest ancient woodlands are nowhere to be seen.
Confir forest don’t support live so densely planted no light reaches the ground only pine needles.
They need the money if more daft claims are awarded like the women who cut her knee on a trail in Wicklow and got 40k!
MM – do you think the trails shouldn’t be maintained?
It was contested. The ruling will be made in Feb
How on earth do you maintain the national parks such that there are no tripping hazards? A bit of common sense and self-responsibility would go a long way in this country
Only the main pathways need to be maintained – that’s common sense!
We’re ranked a terrible 108th in the world for national parks and protected areas. For a country looking to promote it’s natural beauty for tourism we need to look at much more national parks in Ireland. http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/ER.LND.PTLD.ZS?year_high_desc=true
I’m not at all surprised at that ranking, how can we preserve any area or expand any national park when there’s a bungalow every half mile in this country, we’re a country with low population density but we have tiny national parks. The Wild Atlantic Way is lovely and all but there’s nothing wild about it.
I thought the Bear Grylls episode in Ireland years ago was hilarious, he was probably 10 minutes walk from a Centra while he was “fighting for survival”.
That bear grylls show was hilarious I’m sure the camera crew were standing in somebody’s yard filming him.
Pity about the huge McMansions scattered all over our scenic areas.
Good news. But even with the record numbers it remains virtually impossible for small tourist enterprises to get funding from the banks, Its about time they got a proper shoe in the hole.
New sign posts to direct you to these parks and consultancy fees I guess..
500k..that will just about cover the costs of Enda Kenny’s photo-shoot and travel costs up to the launch reception… so.this week , as it stands we have 60.50m for 600 rural towns , 6 national parks and 5 nature reserves ….Bargain basement infrastructure …
Ambulance chasing solicitors and people leaving their common sense at home when hiking will end up draining the public funds available.
Busses, trains, internet and decent roads first.
I’ve had my car broken in to 3 times in Wicklow. Can’t tell you how many cars I’ve seen broken in to while out for a cycle. And a lot of them tourist having there handbags luggage and passports stolen. Last place you would expect it to happen.
Failte Ireland is proposing to pay in excess of €10million to destroy the heritage and wilderness of The Hellfire Club and Massy’s Wood in Dublin- 50% of the cost of the project
very good it’s needed
About €50 per park so!? Another PR headline only
Maybe two executive salaries there,certainly not with expenses
have your say