ORDER BY COURT

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 154, 2 July 1945, Page 3

ORDER BY COURT

APPRENTICE WAGES

NEW PRINCIPLE INVOKED

The first amendment made by the Arbitration Court to an apprenticeship order following the recent amendment to the stabilisation i-egu-lations has been issued with respect to carpentry and joinery apprentices in the Northern industrial district. It embodies a new principle intended to provide uniformity throughout all industries for the payment of apprentices.

The amendment places the rates of pay for apprentices on a basis of percentage of the ruling minimum rates for journeymen in the industry, in accordance with a recommendation of the 1944 Apprenticeship Inquiry Commission.

"This practice is frequently followed abroad, and where practicable the Court proposes to adopt it when making amendments to apprenticeship orders pursuant to the Economic Stabilisation Emergency Regulations," states a memorandum by Mr. Justice Tyndall. "In making this decision the Court also has in mind the wide variation in the minimum rates of wages at present prescribed for apprentices in various industries and in the rates applying in different districts in the same industry. As a result of adopting a percentage basis, the Court hopes that in future a greater degree of uniformity in rates of wages for apprentices will be achieved. Any future adjustments in the prescribed minimum rates for journeymen will be automatically and simultaneously reflected in the appropriate apprenticeship orders."

The Carpentry Rate Under the new order the average rate of wages of an apprentice during his five years of apprenticeship amounts to 50 per cent of the craftsman's rate. Explaining the principle under which this figure was reached, the memorandum states that it has been claimed that at the commencement of a boy's apprenticeship he is not worth anything to his employer, while at the completion of his term he is worth at least the award rate for a craftsman. The mean of these two assessments was 50 per cent, and the Court therefore proposed to fix rates in such a manner that the average rate over the period of apprenticeship would be one-half the award rate for a craftsman.

The amendment fixes the percentage of wages for each six-monthly period during the term of apprenticeship as follows:—For apprentices commencing at an age less than 18 years: 23, 29, 35, 41, 47, 53, 59, 65, 71, 77. For apprentices commencing at an age over 18 years: 35, 41, 47, 53, 59, 65, 71, 77. The rates are subject to the Court's bonuses. The present award rate for carpenters for a 40hour week, without the Court's general orders, is £6 1/8. A Dissenting Opinion In a dissenting opinion, the employers' representative, Mr. W. Cecil Prime, states that, while he agrees that the adoption of a percentage system will tend to avoid anomalies and abolish possible injustices, he disagrees with the basis adopted. The argument in justification of the adoption of rates equal to 50 per cent is admitted .to be sound as far as it goes, but an important factor is alleged to have been omitted.

"What the apprentice receives by way of remuneration is not only his money wages," states Mr. Prime. "He receives something else hardly less tangible—that is,, training in a trade in which he will earn his livelihood probably for the rest of his working life. It has<been estimated that the training an apprentice receives is equal in value to the money wages he receives. No cognisance of this factor is taken in fixing the average rate of remuneration at 50 per cent.

"The new rates, in fact," he concludes, "will in some cases involve increases of approximately 100 per cent. In the case under consideration the increase is equal to 38 per cent for an apprentice starting under 18 years of age. And all this under the guise of stabilisation."