Unite Archaeology Ireland

In January of 2017, Unite Archaeology Ireland issued a further pay claim to Irish archaeological employers. This pay claim requested €14.30 for Site Assistants, €17.60 for Supervisors, and €22.00 for Directors. Many good employers wrote back to say they were paying higher than those rates (Archaeology Plan, Archaeological Projects, ABH, Redarc, Moore Group, Aegis, Dominic Delaney, Kilkenny Archaeology and a few others). ACSU wrote back and said they were paying those rates (they weren’t), but they soon increased their pay to reflect the pay claim. However, neither Rubicon, or IAC responded to the pay claim, At that time, they refused to engage with the union. Because Rubicon and IAC weren’t paying rates above those outlined in the pay claim, we balloted our members in both Rubicon and IAC, for strike action. Members in both companies voted unanimously in favour of the strike.                                                                     Thankfully, a week before the strike, Rubicon agreed to sit down with the union in the Labour Court, where we negotiated a secure agreement for better wages for Rubicon employees - with immediate effect. The agreement included: back-dated increases, and percentage increases to wages, to be paid over the following three years. This agreement meant that, if a recession hit the country, employers couldn’t legally drop those rates. This was an essential policy in securing the future of our industry - dissallowing lower-paying companies, from dropping their pay rates, and undercutting other, well-paying companies, in order to corner the market; as is what happened in 2009.                                                          Unfortunatly, IAC refused to even talk to us, leading to the 1st strike in the history of Irish Commercial Archaeology - happening in Macroom, 4th July 2018. IAC still refused to talk, or change their rates, so a second strike occurred on their Aungier Street site on 19th July 2018. By August, IAC joined us at the negotiating table, whereupon we were able to secure rates in-line with those in the pay claim. This affected new employees, and new sites, from that time onwards. In an attempt to skirt these agreements, IAC established a policy of separating site assistants into 3 levels, based on experience and career progression. This allowed IAC to rationalise the paying less-experienced staff, less money - as little as €520p/w (€13.80p/hr). The pay-rise and grading system that IAC agreed & implimented, benefitted and placated many of our experienced union members, but not so much for lesser experienced archaeologists. The agreements that Unite Archaeology Ireland reached with IAC, only applied to new employees and new sites, meaning that union members working on the IAC site in Portmarnock, were receiving lower rates than everyone else working for IAC. This was the reason for our 3rd strike - on the IAC site in Portmarnock in November 2019, but the site was due to soon finish up, so our members lost their leverage for better pay. In January of 2020 IAC failed to attend a Labour Court hearing regarding their refusal to recognise their employee's right to representation by their union of choice. IAC is (at time of writing), still held in contempt by the Labour Court.