APPRENTICE S APPEAL

Southland Times, Issue 20200, 10 June 1927, Page 6

APPRENTICE S APPEAL

DISALLOWED BY COURT. STRAIGHT TALKING FROM JUDGE. (Per United Press Association.) Wellington, June 9. The Arbitration Court disallowed the appeal by Fred Cornish, an apprentice employed by the Patent Slip Company, against his dismissal. Mr Justice Frazer called attention to the obligations owed by apprentices to their employers. Some boys, he said, seemed to have an exaggerated opinion of their own importance, and the sooner they disabused themselves of this idea the better it would be. The Court was always prepared to make allowances for the exuberation of youth, but there is a limit to that sort of thing. In the present case there was a complaint that the lad was unreliable and was frequently late for work. “That seems to have been proved beyond doubt,” continued his Honour, “and the lad’s explanation is very unsatisfactory. Apparently he thinks he can do more or less as ho likes and then come here and talk glibly and get out of it. That sort of thing won’t go down with the Court. There seems to be an impression in his mind that because he is an apprentice he has a sure job for five years and can afford to defy those in authority. The contract does not mean that an apprentice is sure of his job —it means he has a five years’ job if he conducts himself properly, learns his work in a proper manner, and shows reasonable capacity and efficiency. It is just as well that apprentices should bear that in mind.”