PAINTERS' APPRENTICES

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 19, 22 July 1933, Page 5

PAINTERS' APPRENTICES

The position of apprentices was considered by tho Conciliation Council which is at present reviewing the New Zealand painters' and decorators' award. Tho employers are seeking to iiicluda a clause allowing them to employ a boy who has completed his apprenticeship for a further year at Is 5d an hour.

Mr. T. D. Cornwall, for the New Zea-. land Painters' Union,, contended that the matter was one which should h« dealt with by the apprentices committees, which dealt with such cases a» they came along. Mr. D. I. McDonald (Christchurch) failed to see that it was unfair to tho boy. Where they, were finishing their time they invariably lost their jobs, as the employers could not'retain them, at award rates. It was desired to keep the boys in employment as long as possible, but he did not think the question was one which the apprenticeship committees could deal with. Apprentices in the last year or two had not been fully trained, by virtue of tlia fact that work had not been available, so he could not see that it was unfair to ask that the boy should stay o>i for another year at Is 5d an hour. It would compensate for the loss of training. Further, it would provide an extra year's employment for the boy. Thera wero some cases where there was. no apprenticeship committee. ■■','■ After further , discussion, Mr. Cornwell said his colleagues would recommend their side to ask the apprenticeship committee to give favourable consideration to a year's extension of apprenticeships which were likely to b» completed in the next three years.