BOOT MANUFACTURERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23885, 12 August 1939, Page 11

BOOT MANUFACTURERS

SHORTAGE OF SKILLED WORKERS TRANSFER FROM PUBLIC WORKS TRAINING SCHEME ANNOUNCED (Per United Press Association; WELLINGTON, Aug. 11. Following representations made by boot manufacturers throughout the Dominion regarding a shortage of skilled workers, the Minister of Labour (Mr P. C. Webb) announces the introduction of a scheme for the transfer of workers from the public works and scheme 13' to the boot industry. The object of the scheme is to train New Zealand workers to take up the additional work resulting from the increased orders flowing to the Dominion manufacturers of footwear as the result of the import control system. The scheme has a twofold object in that it aims not only at assisting the manufacturers to obtain skilled labour, but also at transferring workers from public works and scheme 13 to take their place in the New Zealand secondary industries. All workers engaged under this scheme must be apprenticed under written contracts of apprenticeship, and any person desiring to take advantage of the subsidy, whether employer or worker, may obtain full particulars from the _ placement offices or the district offices of the Department of Labour.

In every case contract is to be for a period of two years and a-half, the rate of payment being:—First halfyear. £4 5s a week: second halfyear, £4 10s; third half-year, £4 15s; fourth half-year. £5: fifth halfyear £5 10s.

Towards these wages the department will in approved cases refund to the employer the following subsidies:—First half-year, £1 15s; second half-year, £1 10s; third halfyear, £1 ss; fourth half-year £1; fifth half-year, 10s.