A WARNING TO PARENTS.

Evening Star, Issue 19795, 20 February 1928, Page 13

A WARNING TO PARENTS.

to TDK EDITOR. Sir.—The time has arrived when parents and guardians of youths should exercise some little care in the methods they adopt in having their charges apprenticed to trades. .In a great many cases all they appear to do in the matter is to enter into a verbal agreement with the employer, under which the latter takes the boy on as an apprentice. It often happens, however, that after the boy has served several years the employer, finding business dull, dismisses him, and then the lad learns to his sorrow that he has no legal protection, as there was no contract of apprenticeship registered under the Apprentices Act. By this time ho is too old to become apprenticed to another trade, and he drifts into the army of unskilled workers, all because his parents did not trouble to inquire into the requirements of the Act governing apprentices. In the Apprentices Act it is provided that a contract of apprenticeship, signed by the employer and the parent or guardian of the apprentice, must be registered with the_ District Registrar of Apprentices within twenty-eight days after the commencement of the employment of the apprentice, failing which the parties are severally liable on summary conviction to a fine of £lO. Under the contract the employer agrees to teach and the apprentice agrees to learn. The latter cannot leave his employment or be dismissed except for misconduct, and if the employer wishes to give up business or dispense with tho services of the apprentice for any reason he must find another employer for the boy. But legally there is no apprenticeship unless there is a contract signed and registered. During the past twelve months I have met with a great many cases — particularly in the electrica!_ trade—in which employers have repudiated their obligations to apprentices simply because the parents did not insist upon a registered contract. It might help considerably if the Act were amended so that the penalty for failing to register would fall upon the employer alone. The parents very often err through ignorance of the requirements or. should I say, of the existence ol the Act. The employer, however, cannot plead ignorance, and should not escape. No doubt the whole question of apprenticeship will be considered during the next few months, but in the meantime parents should exercise more cave in this important; matter--1 am, etc., J. Robinson. February 17.