Labour Shortage Worries

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30391, 16 March 1964, Page 3

Labour Shortage Worries

(N.Z. Press Association) PALMERSTON, NORTH, March 15. The Federation of Master Printers of New Zealand is worried about the labour shortage in the printing industry. The federation at its conference in Palmerston North yesterday passed a remit dealing with the problem so far. A committee of four will study ways and means of implementing some points and report back to the federation’s council. The remit proposed by the W ’lington association was: (1) That it is essential to the future efficient maintenance and expansion of the industry that its labour force be materially increased over the next five to 10 years and accordingly this conference calls on members to accept their responsibilities of employing and training their full quota of apprentices. (2) It urges the New Zealand Printing Trade’s Apprenticeship Committee to introduce greater flexibility into the apprenticeship conditions in the industp' to meet changing conditions. (3) That the Government be asked to further increase the annual immigration target for the next five years with particular attention to encouraging the migration of printing trade employees in connexion with which the federation's council be recommended to give the fullest possible support to the Government in any scheme which may be developed to this end. Moving the remit, Mr B. N. Francis, o( Wellington, said

New Zealand printers were not accepting their responsibilities. Mr W. P. Carman, of Wellington, said the remit should not be regarded as a “pious resolution.” The problem lay in the hands of individual employers. Advertising in newspapers

for staff virtually meant that printers were buying labour from each other, contended the federation’s secretary (Mr D. I. Macdonald). Immigration for apprentices and advertising overseas made the only method of overcoming the “buying” problem, he said.