CANCELLED AWARDS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 243, 14 October 1933, Page 18

CANCELLED AWARDS.

APPRENTICESHIP ORDERS. QUESTION OF VALIDITY.

[ ! fßy Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Friday. The question whether when an inilus- [ trial award has been canccllcd in :v 1 particular district, apprenticeship orders should also cease to operate, was brought for decision before the Arbitration Court this afternoon. After hearing . argument by Mr. F. Cornwell on behalf : of a number of unions, Mr. Justice Frazor reserved decision. Mr. Cornwell said it seemed strange that where an award had ceased to operate owing to the conditions offered by the employers to the workers being unacceptable, apprentices in that trade or industry should be deprived of the conditions and protection contained in their order. Mr. Cornwell argued that the Court had power to overcome any slight difficulty which ■ might arise through any award ceasing to function in any particular district by extending the provisions of the apprenticeship order in the industry concerned to the district where an award had ceased to operate. "This is a serious question so far as apprentices are concerned," Mr. Cornwell said, "and I do not think employers want to interfere with the orders." Mr. W. Cecil Prime, the Employers' assessor: It might have been better to have let sleeping dogs lie. Employers are now following out the terms of orders, but the question of their validity having been raised may upset that. His Honor: Tt is purely accidental if these orders are invalid. It was never intended by the Legislature. It is entirely a question of law, and it. is far better to face the question now, so that if the orders do prove invalid the position can bo rectified. "This is a new suggestion of Mr. Cornwell's," liis Honor continued, "that employers, say, in Southland, should be brought under an award simply because one exists, say, in Auckland."