APPRENTICES’ ACT.

Otago Witness, Issue 3804, 8 February 1927, Page 53

APPRENTICES’ ACT.

RESTRICTION ON EMPLOYMENT. AUCKLAND, February 3. Criticism of the Apprentices Act was voiced at the concluding session of the conference of the New Zealand Retail Watchmakers and Jewellers’ Association Mr P. N. Denton said the apprenticeship question was a very vexed one, especially among the watchmakers, on account of the small number of men employed. Ihe greatest weakness in the Act was its restriction upon the employment of extra apprentices, unless the number of journey men was increased accordingly. The remedy lay in the hands of the Government which seemed bound by a system of pinpricking Labour laws. The fact was that the workers were afraid of the apprentices supplementing them in their jobs. The president, Mr E. S. Kohn, said he understood that after an apprentice had served three years it was possible to take on another junior. Mr Denton stated that a Wellington jeweller had tried to do this, but his action had raised a storm of protest from the Trades Hall. The whole question was a serious one as much for the boy life of the country as anyone else. Several members agreed that the Act had been introduced to do-away-with many evils, but that it was not working in the interests of the employee and employer. A resolution was passed to the effect that the conference deplored the lack of efficient apprentices, and considered this the result of the Apprentice Act as at present framed, the limitation of one apprentice to three journeymen affecting the watch trade in particular.