LABOUR PROBLEMS AND ACCOUNTANCY

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 130, 26 February 1937, Page 12

LABOUR PROBLEMS AND ACCOUNTANCY

Effect on Profession

SUGGESTION TO AVOID OVERCROWDING The effect unemployment and industrial laws have had and arc likely to have on accountants was the subject of comment by Mr. C. H. Wynyard in his presidential address at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Society of Accountants last night. The amending industrial legislation passed last session directly affected the profession, and for the first time iu the history of the society public practitioners found themselves compelled to arrange industrial agreements and awards with their employees, he said. A majority of the society’s council felt that as the society represented both employers and employees it could take no active part in furthering the interests of one section of members against another section. As far as he knew the relationship between public accountants generally and their employees had been good and in keeping with the best traditions of any profession. It was a matter for regret that the legislation had been applied to a profession where such coercive measures were unnecessary. To Encourage lie-employment. The Government realised that the provisions of the Act relating to a basic wage order operated harshly on those employees who were more or less trainees, and at t he close of the session made provision for the approval by the Minister of Labour of service agreements or apprenticeship contracts to cover employees whose training and inexperience did not justify the payment of the basic wage. Many juniors in public accountants’ offices might be expected to be brought under service agreements or apprenticeship contracts. It would appear that there was very little unemployment, among the society’s members, but unless the problem was approached from a new angle he thought the difficulties of unemployment among members must sooner or later arise.

The problem of rehabilitating in industry men on sustenance was further compiicated by recent tendencies toward higher wages, and employers, in order to retain efficiency in their businesses, were compelled to engage workers of the highest skill and training. To the man on sustenance who, through unemployment, had lost his high standard of skill, the chances of .regaining his position in industry were not hopeful.

A scheme could be evolved whereby employers would be granted some remission in taxation for every man taken off sustenance and rehabilitated iu industry. Such remissions should be granted for a term and could be progressively reduced from time to time as the worker acquired greater skill. The knowledge that ho would be expected to reach a certain degree of efficiency at the end of a term would be an incentive to the worker to give of his best in order to secure a permanent place in industry. After referring to the danger of young men and women entering callings which might later prove to lie overcrowded, Mr. Wynyard said that where industry became slack some Government scheme should be available to provide facilities to enable young workers to retain their skill while unemployed, and thus keep up a supply of efficient workers to enter employment when industry revived. Accountancy Must Give Lead. “This problem ot seeing that the future generation is not allowed to drift into the ranks of the unemployed must give food for thought, and the society as one controlling the profession of accountancy must give some lead as far as that profession is concerned,” said Mr. Wynyard. “In the last November examinations. 1759 students sat for Bookkeeping I, and it would be interesting to learn the niche each hoped to occupy in the business field. At present students have no information or forecast to guide them ,and it is conceivable that they may find that in a few years’ time the goal they set out to reach fades out of sight because of factors over which they have no control.

“It would be a courageous man who attempted to forecast the future, but 1 think the society could do something in the nature of obtaining data which would be useful in giving to the young student information as to the tendencies of the profession. For example, over the past ten years we find that the number of public accountants has increased by 238, and the question arises as to whether (his increase will be maintained over the next decade. If all students sitting the society’s examinations were to complete a questionnaire in which they stated their intentions when commencing the society’s examinations, there would be available some information on the question as to whether there were likely to be openings for them on completion. Allowance would, of course, have to be made for the fact that a number of students would, no doubt, change their minds before reaching the final stage of the examinations and quite a number would drop out, but assuming that 500 of last year’s candidates intimated that it was their intention to seek employment in the public accountancy field, this society should be able to say whether there was a likelihood of that number being absorbed in the profession. Collection of Data. “With the co-operation of members, university colleges and correspondence schools, I believe that sufficient information could be obtained to enable this society to give some forecast as io future prospects in the profession. It is true that the compilation of this data would entail some work and expense. but I think, as a society, it is our duty to the young people of this country to see that we have in hand data and figures to enable us to issue a warning should at any time appear that the profession is likely to be overcrowded. The cry of ‘close corporation’ is a phrase only when this society is considered and has no bearing on what, after all. would be an attempt at sane rationalisation of the training of the youth of this country.’’

Mr. Wynyard remarked that with the probable introduction of apprenticeship or service arrangements, or both, in the profession, the time had arrived when consideration should bp given to the question of intending practitioners having some practical experience before being granted a transfer to public accountancy status.