APPRENTICES ACT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22366, 13 September 1934, Page 14

APPRENTICES ACT

ITS REPEAL SOUGHT PETITIONS TO PARLIAMENT. (From Oub Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, September 12. Claiming that the Apprentices Act, 1923, had been designed to meet a set of circumstances which had almost disappeared even before the Act became law, and which for the last five years at least had been entirely unknown, many firms are petitioning Parliament for the repeal of the present law. Three such petitions were presented to the House of Representatives to-day—one from Auckland signed by 189 firms, one from New Plymouth and one from Hawera. It is stated in the petitions that the general shortage of labour during the years 1914 to 1920 and the resultant high wages obtainable by all classes of unskilled workers had created a natural reluctance on the part of boys leaving school to enter skilled trades as apprentices and accept the lower wages paid there. This had caused many boys to seek what were commonly described as blind alley occupations. It had also tempted apprentices, after part training, to leave their employers in order to seek higher wages in unskilled trades. These considerations had influenced the Minister of Labour to set up a committee of inquiry in 1922, and, although the conditions were then rapidly altering, the Apprentices Act of 1923 was framed by this committee and became law. Far from achieving its purpose, the Act had definitely had the effect of reducing to a minimum the opportunities for boys to enter skilled trades, and it yas the opinion of the petitioners that while the Act remained on the Statute Book there would be no improvement in this position. The petitions conclude: “Your petitioners therefore pray that the Apprentices Act and its amendments be repealed and the system formerly in vogue of making provision for apprentices in industrial awards and agreements be reverted to.”