ANOMALIES IN LAW.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 53, Issue 272, 29 August 1933, Page 7

ANOMALIES IN LAW.

EFFECT OF LEGISLATION. APPRENTICESHIP CONTRACTS (Per Pjsss Association). AUCKLAND, August 28. The general revision of civil contracts undertaken by Parliament last year included a review of apprenticeship contracts, power being given to magistrates to amend, suspend, or cancel any such contracts in force at the date of the passing of the Finance Act, May 10, 1932. The anomalous results that have followed the legislation and the exercise by magistrates of the jurisdiction conferred upon them were discussed in the Arbitration Court when application was made for an amendment of the wages scale in the printing trades apprenticeship order of 1926. The proceedings disclosed that by a general order of the Court in 1931 wages in subsequent apprenticeship contracts were fixed at 10 per cent, less than the rates specified by existing orders. Under the 1932 legislation reductions had been made in different industries, decisions bv magistrates ranging from 15 to 50 per cent, of the basic rates, but these decisions do not affect contracts made since May 10, 1932. _ The president of the Arbitration Court (Mr Justice ‘Frazer) said that amendments of the printing trades order would not entirely remove the anomaly in that industry. There would be one scale of wages determined by magistrates, a. second operating in the case of contracts made after May 10, 1932, and a third fixed by the proposed amendment. His Honor said that in the present patchwork state of legislation there was the further difficulty that there was apparently no power, if business conditions improved, .to increase wages during the term of contract. Whether Parliament would pass another amendment to enable this to be done he did not know.

”it is very difficult with the legislation as it now stands to avoid, creating anomalies,’ his Honor added. “I should like to see the whole question of apprenticeship dealt with again by Parliament and put- on a sound basis. It <loes not seem to be very satisfactory at present.”