PAYMENT OF BOYS

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 113, 9 November 1933, Page 18

PAYMENT OF BOYS

EFFICIENCY SHOULD COUNT

EXPERIENCE OVERLOOKED

'"One of the most serious obstacles to the employment of . youths who have passed the age o£ 16 years is found in the award rate for wage payments, governing certain types of industry," says the report of a special committee set up by.the conference of the New Zealand Technical School Teachers' Association. "In the apprenticeship awards there are no serious difficulties so far as wage payments are concerned in the following trades:—Bricklayers, carpenters, joiners, clothing trade, coach and body builders, electrical workers, furniture trade, hairdressing, motor engineering, painters, decorators, plasterers, plumbers, printers, saddlers, tailors, and tinsmiths, but in the cases of shop assistants, junior storemeu, packers, porters, messengers, grocers' assistants, and apprentices in certain districts, where trade combines have arranged wage rates on an age basis, the position is serious. Under these awards, although some allowance is made for experience, payment is made in the main according to age. "for example, a boy of 18 years of age seeking employment as a shop assistant must be paid £1 per week, whereas a boy of 15 is paid 12s 6d. The boy ,of 18 is generally quite willing to accept 12s 6d, but the award forbids it. In the latest agreement drawn up by the Wellington engineering trades, a boy of. 18 is to be paid £1 2s- 6d, whereas the lad of 15 draws los a week. It will be. seen, then, that unless some temporary relief can be obtained from the rigidity of these awards, the chances of, employing boys 17 years and over arc extremely remote. 'Furthermore, if this state of affairs is allowed to' continue, many boys of the future will indirectly be deprived of the advantages of a complete secondary education. Four years ago, an employer was quite willing to pay a senior boy the award rates and reap the benefit of his maturity, culture, and general education, but today he is tempted not to do so by tho inducement to employ younger lads at a lower cost. ""While a system of wages payments according to age may have been necessary in-the past, it seems that the time; has now come when it is not so desirable. Efficiency is the factor that should count in the long run."