Threat to end subsidies under attack

Press, 7 April 1987, Page 12

Threat to end subsidies under attack

PA Auckland A threat to end Government subsidies for off-the-job apprenticeship training has been criticised by an employers’ representative.

Mr Derek Sutcliffe, general manager of the Auckland Employers’ Association, said a Ministerial warning over apprentice training was “a further example of unilateral decisions made by this Government.”

The Acting Minister of Employment, Mr Goff, said at the week-end that

industries which did not reform apprentice training arrangements would lose a subsidy of $6O a week for workers on offjob courses.

Industries which met Government targets would get a subsidy boost to $llO a week. Mr Sutcliffe said industries were trying to reform apprentice training.

The Government appeared determined to set its own timetable without consulting widely with industry.

Industries with a serious commitment to apprentice training would not take kindly to Mr Goffs blunt warning, said Mr Sutcliffe. The Minister, addressing the Printing Industry Federation in Auckland on Saturday, said the Government was concerned with the “sluggish response” of industry to apprenticeship reforms. Printing had been an exception, he said. The industry had reduced the apprenticeship contract from four years to about three and promoted equal opportunity for women.

Mr Goff described his threat of withdrawing subsidies from some industries as a “carrot and stick” approach. He said the printing industry was the first to get the “carrot” of the higher subsidy, which was backdated to January 1.