AUXILIARY WORKERS

Evening Star, Issue 23832, 12 March 1941, Page 3

AUXILIARY WORKERS

SUCCESS OF THE SCHEME MANY TRAINEES ENTERING INDUSTRY [Per United Press Association.] ■CHRISTCHURCH, March 11. . “An important stage has been reached in the development of the emergency training courses established under the Auxiliary Workers’ Training Regulations, 1941, with the entering into industry of several trainees from the Wellington training course for auxiliary workers in the engineering industry,” said the Minister at Labour, Air Webb, in an interview this evening. Seven auxiliary workers had been placed with Wellington firms engaged upon the production of equipment essential to the war effort, the Minister said. Twenty-seven further requests for auxiliary workers had been lodged by Wellington firms, and men would shortly, be released from the training centre to fill those vacancies. The Wellington trainees have completed their course of three months,.the hrst entering on November.il, 1940, and later drafts entering on November 18 and 25. It is contemplated that the whole of the Wellington group comprising 40 machinists and 15 welders will be drafted into industry by the end of March,

“ Complete satisfaction with the auxiliary workers already placed has been expressed by the employers concerned,” said the Minister. “ The men have been engaged as either welders or second-class machinists at the award rate of 2s 7£d an hour plus 5 per cent. Every effort has been made to protect the workers already in industry, and a clause has been embodied in the published regulations providing that no auxiliary worker shall be taken into employment on the register of the local union, and that no qualified worker shall be dismissed merely because an auxiliary worker has been engaged. “ Forty further trainees for the engineering industry have commenced a course of. training at the Christchurch Technical College and the branch collego at Papanui. An additional 45 trainees in Auckland have been selected for a similar course, and it is anticipated that they will commence training this month. Schemes are also • in hand for the training of auxiliary workers for the footwear industry. Twelve trainees are to be selected to commence a course as clickers in Christchurch; and a further 12 will be selected in Wellington. “ It has also been decided,” Mr Webb added, “to establish a footwear trade school in Auckland. It is anticipated that a minimum of 60 male and 60 female operatives could he trained in the school annually. The various schemes are being controlled by the Dominion Training Council, which meets frequently in Wellington.”