SHORTAGE OF SKILLED PLUMBERS.

Evening Star, Issue 22723, 10 August 1937, Page 7

SHORTAGE OF SKILLED PLUMBERS.

10 THE EDITOR. Sir, —Owing to statements being made that there is a shortage of plumbers, • the Dunedin Plumbers’ Union considers that the correct position should be made known in the public interest. During recent years an astounding number of plumbers have left the trade for other vocations, being unable to get steady work at their trade. Some have recently left for South Africa, and others are likely to follow, and in the last two months four transfers have been granted to other unions, these men being unable to get work at their trade. There are a number of what ; are termed back-yard plumbers, good, efficient tradesmen, who, being unable to get permanent work, are forced to work from their own homes. Many of these men would willingly accept steady work. Two Melbourne plumbers who came prepared to settle here have returned to Australia, and their experience will pat a stop to any other prospective citizen from Melbourne. That there is no shortage of plumbers is proved by two infallime trade barometers. No. 1, the cut-throat competition that is going on, employers stating they cannot get the remuneration of labourers from their contracts. When work is taken at such low prices, trade cannot be brisk. No; 2, the employers are only paying the minimum wage; if there was a shortage of labour they would pay higher rates. At a recent sitting of the Conciliation Council they refused to pay the equivalent of the lowest rate paid in the : building trade, and they emplpyed m adyocate .who -gets a-

high salary for fighting down wages and conditions. It is understood, then, why' men leave a trade for less pay, but steadier work, plumbers having to serve a six-year apprenticeship, pass a severe examination, and be personally responsible to authorities for their work —responsibilities that only employers in other trades have—and then_ to receive less wages than other building trades who serve five years’ apprenticeship. Plumbing apprentices are also the lowest paid of any building trade, and an average of three annually cannot be absorbed by the plumbing trade, and join the ranks of dead lane occupations. Committee, Plumbers’ Union. August 10.