APPRENTICES’ ACT.

Otago Witness, Issue 3765, 11 May 1926, Page 18

APPRENTICES’ ACT.

RULING BY THE COURT,

AUCKLAND, May 8. An important matter brought before the Arbitration Court in Auckland was that of the transfer of apprentices, whose employers had not been able to discharge their obligations, ami of apprentices whom it was found impossible to transfer owing to other employers having already their full quota of apprentices. The court has now decided that the power and discretion provided for in section 13 of the Apprentices Act may be exercised by the District Registrar and the Apprenticeship Committee, notwithstanding that the employer to whom it is proposed to transfer an apprentice lias already his full quota as determined by the order. In a memorandum the court states that this order has been made in response to representations made to the court by the district registrar of appreptices at Auckland. It appeared that the difficulty had arisen owing to a number of firms becoming insolvent and going out of business, thus leaving their apprentices unprovided for, and without effective redress. Suitable employers were willing to employ them, but were prevented by the individual proportion clauses from doing so. The present order was intended to meet such a position. It did not, of course, operate so as to increase the total number of apprentices in the district, but provided a means of absorbing the existing apprentices who would otherwise have no opportunity of completing their training. Following an application by the Apprenticeship Committee in the motor engineering industry, the court has made an order calling upon every employer of an apprentice to the trade or a motor mechanic within the radius of 12 miles of the Seddon Memorial Technical College at Auckland to pay the sum of Is in respect of every apprentice employed by him in the trade between- the date of the order and December 31, 1925, and also in respect of every apprentice employed by him during 1926.