APPRENTICES’ WAGES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22628, 20 July 1935, Page 14

APPRENTICES’ WAGES

PROPOSAL FOR SUBSIDY REMOVAL OF RESTRICTIONS NECESSARY The opinion that the subsidising of apprentices’ wages by the Unemployment Hoard could achieve its maximum effect in the relief of unemployment among youths only in the eveut of some relaxation of the restrictions imposed by the Apprentices Act was expressed in Christchurch on Thursday by Mr A. 0. Maxwell, a member of the Christchurch Boys’ Employment Committee, when commenting on a proposal put forward by Mr A. E. Ansell. M.P.. for the absorption of unemployed youths in industry. In an interview in Christchurch on Thursday Mr Ansell said that he was much concerned for the welfare of the younger men who, three or four jears ago, were of age to be apprenticed, but had been deprived by unemployment of an opportunity of being trained for a constructive occupation. Young men who should be developing their abilities in apprenticeship were condemned to pick and shovel work. MEN WITH DEPENDENTS.

Mr Ansell had suggested to the Unemployment Board that it should endeavour to place young unemployed men as apprentices, and should subsidise their wages, to bring them up to what they would have been on relief. This, Mr Ansell continued, he proposed should apply more particularly in the case of young men who had parents dependent or partially dependent on them. Mr Ansell said ho had quoted to the Unemployment Board cases of young men responsible for the maintenance of their mothers who were receiving 24s a week on relief work. As first-year apprentices they would be paid by their employers 18s 6d a week, and ns secondyear apprentices 22s Cd a week. If the Unemployment Board made up the difference, the apprentices would be off their hands in the third year, when their employers would be paying them 26s 6d a week.

Men who might otherwise become a charge on the rest of the community for the whole of their lives, said Mr Ansell, would thus be given a valuable technical training, and within three years would be off the hands of the relief authorities. “THE ACT A BARRIER.” “ The Apprenticeship Act is one of the barriers to the employment of youths in industry at the present time,” declared Mr Maxwell. "Its restrictions are definitely a hindrance to employers who might be willing to take on apprentices. The Act has boeh in force for many years now, and while it may have been quite suitable in prosperous times, when there was plenty of work, it now needs amendment. “ I do not know whether the subsidising of wages of apprentices would have the desired effect under the present restrictions, but I am sure that, even without a subsidy, many youths would secure employment as apprentices if the Act were modified. Under such conditions, too, a subsidy would undoubtedly achieve its maximum result.”

Mr W. F. Blackwell, president of the Canterbury Employers’ Association, was not willing to discuss at length the proposal of Mr Ansell, but he said that his organisation had had the apprenticeship question under review for some time, and it was hoped that before long there would be an improvement. He was doubtful, __ however, whether many employers would be able to pay the rates suggested by Mr Ansell, which in some cases would represent an increase in apprenticeship wages of 50 per cent. Unskilled apprentices learning a trade were not worth that amount to most firms.