"UNFAIR REFERENCE"

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 149, 28 June 1929, Page 11

"UNFAIR REFERENCE"

STUDENTS IN WORKSHOPS

MEN NOT DISPLACED

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.)

CHEISTCHUKCH, This Day. Tho practice of engineering firms in Christchurch taking University students into their workshops came before the Arbitration Court yesterday. Mr. T. O. ■Bishop, the employers' representative in the engineers' dispute, said that Mr. B. F. Barter, who appeared for the employees, had made an unfair reference to firms dismissing men and taking on University students in. their place. Mr. Barter called G. T. Thurston, who said that there was a particular case in Christchurch, in which several men were put off and sixteen students were taken on. At least two of the men were married.

In answer to Mr. Bishop, he said that he believed that the firm had dismissed up to eight men. Mr, Bishop said that there were a number of employers in the Court. They could give the assurance that students were not used to displace men. The students were taken on purely to satisfy the demands of the School of Engineering. Some firms did not want to be bothered with them. They did not compete with the workers under the award, but acquired quite a different kind of knowledge. They were not of any benefit to an employer.