Fellow HistArchers:
Please consider contributing a SHA 2001 paper to the proposed ethics in
archaeological employment session described below.
Jim Gibb

Organized Session: Ethics in Contractual Archaeological Employment:
Flexibility or Denied Responsibility
Session Abstract
Every year talented, well-educated, well-trained, hard working
practitioners leave archaeology, while others endure frustration,
inadequate healthcare, and financial hardship. Employers often deny
contractual and self-employed persons adequate compensation, workers'
compensation, benefits, and rights comparable to those given merit
employees with similar credentials, experiences, skills, and duties, and
despite their treatment in all other respects as employees. Benefits
include insurance and pension plans, paid holidays and sick time, and
social security contributions worth thousands of dollars a year to
individual workers.

The use of contractual workers and self-employed contractors figures
prominently in archaeology's failure to retain and fairly treat many
colleagues, while potentially holding government agencies, universities,
museums, and corporations liable for millions of dollars in penalties
and back taxes. Contributors to this session will discuss contractual
employment, the roles of contracted workers in archaeology,
price-cutting through the use of contractual labor, and guidelines for
professional conduct in hiring and compensating archaeologists,
historians, conservationists, other allied professionals, and support
personnel.

James G. Gibb
Andrew Garte & Associates
6285 Shady Side Road
Shady Side, MD  20764
410.867.4600/410.263.1102
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