Shortage of painters

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32568, 30 March 1971, Page 3

Shortage of painters

There was an urgent need for skilled tradesmen, not only in the painting and decorating industry but in the building industry as a whole, the retiring president of the Guild of Master Painters (Mr J. S. Paine, of Timaru) said yesterday at the annual conference of the guild in Christchurch.

The 1967 recession caused a labour loss which had yet to be filled, he said. “The industry should be expanding, instead of declaring a loss of 16,000 men.” "Continued Government policy of using the building industry as an economic regulator by imposing restrictions at the drop of a hat causes thousands of workers to leave the industry to seek more stable employment elsewhere, resulting in this long, protracted period before they can be persuaded to return,” said Mr Paine. "There were 189 vacancies in the painting and decorating industry in. October, 1970 vacancies that obviously cannot be filled by apprentices,” he said. “Surely the time has come for some form of adult retraining on the lines of the post-war rehabilitation scheme, or a modular scheme of adding one skill to another much in the same way as obtaining units at university.”