APPRENTICE PROBLEMS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19321, 7 May 1926, Page 14

APPRENTICE PROBLEMS

TRANSFER DIFFICULTIES. ARBITRATION COURT'S ORDER. SEVERAL DECISIONS FILED.

The difficulty of transferring apprentices in cases where their employers, through insolvency and other causes, have gone out of business, was recently brought to the notice of the Arbitration Court in Auckland. In these cases where certain employers have been unable to discharge their obligations to their apprentices,- it has been found impossible to transfer the apprentices to other suitable employers owing to the latter having already their full quota of apprentices. The Court has decided that the powers arid discretions provided for in section 13 of the Apprentices Act, 1923, may be exercised by the district registrar and the apprenticeship committee, notwithstanding that the employer to whom it is proposed to transfer an apprentice is already employing the full quota of apprentices as determined by the apprenticeship order. The order is to operate from May 3. In a memorandum the Court states (he order docs not operate so as to increase the total number of apprentices in. the district, but provides a means of absorbing existing apprentices, who would otherwise have no opportunity of completing their training. Training Contributions. Another matter of interest connected with the Apprentices Act is an amendment of the order requiring contributions bv employers to the cost of an institution for the training of apprentices.. Three of the former clauses have been deleted, and others substituted. Under the new clauses every employer of an apprentice to the trade of motor mechanic within a radius of 12 miles of the Seddon .Memorial Technical College is to pay 10s in respect of every apprentice employed by him in the trade between the date of the order and December 31, 19-5, and iri respect also of every apprentice employed during 1926. In response to an application by the apprenticeship committee to the Plumbers', and Gasfittcrs' Order, the Court has ordered that the apprenticeship committee for the area comprised within the Whangarei 20-milfes radius may determine the proportion of apprentices to journeymen that may be employed oy any employer within that area. A similar order has been made in respect of the Painters' and Decorators' Order for the area comprised within the Auckland 12-miles radius. Electrical Workers. Regarding the Llectrical Workers Apprenticeship Order the Court has deleted clause 6 and substituted the following "ihe proportion :of the total number of apprentices to the total number of journeymen employed in the tiade or industry in the district shall be not more than one to two. The proportion of the total number of apprentices to the total number of journeymen employed by any emplover- shall be not more than one to two or "fraction of two. provided, however, that until December'3l next the district proportion of apprentices to journeymen and tiie proportion of apprentices-.to journeymen employed by any employer shal. be not more than four to-five; from Jan uary 1. 1927, to December 31," 192.7, not more than four to six: from January 1, ]928, to December 31, 1928, not more than four tn seven;, and thereafter the district proportion of apprentices to jour neymen shall be not more than one to two, and the proportion of apprentices to journeymen employed by any employer shall be not more than one to two or fraction of two, as first provided." Delegation of Pov/ers. An application to delete from the ap preniieeship order covering plumbers' and gasfitters' apprentices the provision fixing the individual proportion of apprentices, and to delegate to the apprenticeship committee for the Auckland 10-milcs radius the power of fixing the proportion for each employer within that radius, was refused. The Court said it did not think it desirable to delegate its power of fixing the individual proportion to a committee in a case such as the present, where the committee was not unanimous. In the orders made respecting the apprentices in the painters and decorators and plumbei-s and gasfitters, Mr. Scott, the. employers' representative on the Conrt, disagreed from the majority of the Court. He was of opinion that the power should be exercised by the Court alone and not delegated by it to any committee. He expressed the opinion further that if power were granted to committees, it would lead to friction and endless appeals.