APPRENTICESHIP LAW.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 123, 17 July 1911, Page 8

APPRENTICESHIP LAW.

COMPLAINTS MADE BY EMPLOYERS. Thoro arc some strong comm mts in the annual report of. the WcJL'iigton Employers’ Association on the state of the law governing the relations between masters and apprentices. The provisions of the present jaws and awards relating to apprentices,” says the report, ‘.‘are in such an unsatisfactory state that employers are less inclined than ever to take upon themselves the heavy -espo is-bi'.ivas they are required to assume when accepting the services of an apprentice. The result is that throughout the Dominion the number of young people being trained by employers as mechanics or tradesmen is in no way commensurate with the natural increase in. the demand for trained artisans and tradesmen. The time is ripe for this question being grappled with.” MALINGERING. The report goes on to point out that recent decisions of the courts practically make employers liable to pay wages for time lost by apprentices through sickness, and thus op-n the door for malingering on the part of young people. “This statement is made advisedly,” it says, ‘as some employers have proof that lads have made the excuse of sickness when desirous of having a dav .vay. Lorn work. Then there is an unfortunate tendency on the part of youths to imagine that once their employer is bound to keep them as apprentices, they are free to carry on as they please, and to devote themselves to their work or not, according to their inclination. The extent of the impertinence and disobedience shown by some apprentices owing to this belief would surprise the general public. The fixing of a minimum wage is to some extent responsible for the want of enthusiasm in and devotion to work noticeable in a large number of apprentices ,as they are under the impression that they have only to serve at the trade for the usual term of five or six years to entitle them to full journeymen’s wages. ’

ALTERATIONS REQCI RED, In the opinion of the committee the alterations in tho law and awards’ most urgently needed are;— 1. Tho right of the employer to deduct wages for all time lost hy an apprentice through default or sickness. (Vide last year’s amendment of Factories Act). 2. A more definite statement of the responsibilities and duties of tho apprentice to tho employer; and a consequential right to the employer to dismiss the apprentice >f he fails to faithfully carry out his duties. 3. Power to ho given to tho corn is to cancel apprenticeship ’f, duough unforeseen circumstances, an map.-oy-er finds himself unable to cone one teaching the apprentice, or fails to find another employer who i* a king to take tho apprentice.