BOYS IN INDUSTRY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22657, 19 February 1937, Page 13

BOYS IN INDUSTRY

the starting Wage LEGISLATION PROBLEM OLDER YOUTHS SUFFER The difficulties presented by the inelasticity of recent industrial legislation preventing boys with slight factory experience from securing permanent employment or an apprenticeship was indicated at a meeting of tho Auckland Boys' Employment Committee yesterday when several instances of hardship were mentioned. The secretary, Mr. N. G. Gribble, said the case of one boy 16J years of age had been placed before the Minister of Labour. This lad had left school in 1934, having passed the fifth standard, and since that time had secured employment for six months in the boot trade, for two months in a box factory, for two months in a service station and for eight months as a publisher's deliverer. He was an orphan and for the last six months had cared for a sick grandmother. Minister's Attitude V When the boy reported to the committee on January 13 he was sent to apply for a position with a firm of dyers and cleaners which was prepared to engage him and, if he proved satisfactory, to apprentice him. However, tho Labour Department advised his prospective employers that the boy's starting wage would be 23s or 2"s with a rise every six months,- and the firm was unable to employ him. Replying to the request for a dispensation, the Hon. W. Lee Martin said he regretted that the Statute did not empower him to authorise the departure from the provisions relative to wages. They were based on previous factory experience. He had inquired into the position and appreciated the difficulty, but he was powerless .to help. The chairman, Sir Joseph Smith, said the reply was most disappointing, as a deputation which had waited upon the Minister of Labour was impressed by his emphatic statement that he was able to overcome peculiar difficulties associated with the Act. Vocational Guidance Several members considered the strict adherance to the Act to be unreasonable, and it was decided to pursue the matter. .

A memorandum covering aspects of the proposed extension of the committee's work to cover vocational guidance was adopted. The report referred to the necessity for co-operating with Government departments in this task and stated that a guidance officer would be responsible for evolving a system of educational and vocational advice to all children leaving school. The complete system visualised would extend from the period prior to leaving school right uf to such time as it was proved that the young people helped had been definitely established in suitable callings.