APPRENTICESHIP LAW

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 750, 24 August 1929, Page 6

APPRENTICESHIP LAW

TRADE COMMITTEES’ WORK AMENDMENTS TO ACT (THE SUN’S Parliamentary Reporter) PARLIAMENT BLDGS., Friday. Amendments to the Apprenticeship Act are proposed In a Bill Introduced in the House of Representatives today by the Hon. W. A. Veitch, Minister of Labour. The decisions arrived at by the conference of the Special Apprenticeship Committee, held some three mouths ago, are embodied In the Bill. The measure contains 17 clauses. At present an apprenticeshop committee can consist of any persons as representatives of employers and workers, but clause two of the Bill will limit the majority of the representatives to those actually engaged in the trade. Under the principal Act an apprenticeship committee is appointed by the organisations of the workers and employers, who can fix their own constitution and decide whether an independent member shall be chairman or not. It is understood that in most cases the committee consists of an equal number, and that they do not have an additional person as chairman. The result Is that unless the committee is unanimous It is sometimes diflicult to arrive at a decision. Clause 4 provides that in such a contingency the matter mav be referred to the Court of Arbitration, Where no apprenticeship committee is set up the Court may authorise, under clause 5, the district registrar to carry out the functions of a committee. There are already committees set up in the principal towns of New Zealand, but there are a number of cases where there is not a committee. Clause 13 provides that where an employer is adjudicated an bankrupt, or a company wound up, the apprentice shall be entitled to three months’ wages as compensation in lieu of the termination of his contract.