APPRENTICES

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 23, 28 January 1924, Page 6

APPRENTICES

10 THE EDJ7OK.

Sir,—Your leader of the 24th inst is a ve ry fau-statement of the position, but it does not go far enough. The obvious duty of employers m the building trade is to tram sufficient apprentices lb replace the natural wastage and to provide for reasonable expansion. .Regulations there must be, but it will be difficult to snow that the-present regulations press so unduly on the employers as to justify the attitude of the Dunedin builder mentioned in your columns. It is obvious that it will always be much to enforce a contract against an employer than against an apprentice, and. while we have had trouble occasionally, it would be foolish to. suggest that "as a reason for refusing to train boys. We know of many difficulties which prevent employers assuming the responsibility of training apprentices, but the interest of the building trade and of the general public, who, after all, pay the piper, is of 60 much greater importance tnan that of the individual employer that it is becoming more clearly recognised by a large number of builders throughout the country that unless sufncient men are trained the cost of building operations must £*eadily increase without adequate value being given It is futile to contend that the restriction of one apprentice to three journeymen has had the effect of restraining employers, from taking on apprentices. The fact is that if we had half as many apprentices as the award allows, the position would be quite healthy; but, if nothing is done to stop the drift, the difficulty will be to find sufficient skilled men to put a reasonable number of boys alongside, in order that they might be trained. The number of boys offering for the various branches of the trade is much greater than is generally recognised, and it is the building trade employers who are actually forcing ~thos« boys into offices or dead-end jobs, simply because they refuse to employ them in trades where there is an admitted shortage of skilled labour. . '

The whole matter is of such importance that it might be well for Government and local bodies-^ to consider whether a preference in tendering might not profitably be given to those employers who are employing an adequate number of apprentices, otherwise the Arbitration Court may frnd itself forced to put into operation that clause in the new Apprentice Act which comes into force this year, which gives the Court power to order an employer to engage apprentices where the interest of the industry demands it.—l am, etc., ANDREW FLETCHEB. 25th January^, , •..