APPRENTICES.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 760, 18 July 1916, Page 10

APPRENTICES.

QUESTION OF PROPORTION.

CONDITIONS IN ELECTRICAL WORK.

At the Conciliation Council to-day during the course of negotiations the employers offered the union a settlement upon a basis of 1/6 per hour instead of the 1/4* now provided in the award. The union representatives retired to consider the matter, and on resuming said that they would accept the 1/6 per hour, combined with a limitation of apprentices in the proportion of one apprentice to one man. As an alternative offer they would take 1/7 per hour and concede two apprentices. On this announcement being made Mr Clarke (for the employers) said that the union assessors did not understand the condition of the trade.

The union's proposal was of no use; there was a great amount of electrical work to be done, and the two apprentices were necessary. Mr Stark (city electrical engineer) said he wished the men would read the "Electrical Engineer" and get an idea of how business had to be fought for in the United States and Great Britain. They could then compare the position with that in Christchurch, where people were begging for electricity and could not get it. There was any amount of work to be done now, and would be for years to come. Men could not be got, and therefore they must have apprentices and train them. The union assessors urged that conditions might change after the war. If there was a slump people would not put electricity into their houses. The Commissioner (Mr Triggs) urged that there would be no slump as this was not primarily a manufacturing country. Mr Stark remarked that even if there were a slump people would continue to put in electricity "to save the kerosene bill." Mr Mcßrearty (one of the union assessors) contended that the employers, having admitted that the path of business was easy for them, it was a fair thing that the men should share in the prosperity and get compensated for the extra trouble involved in looking after two boys. Thirteen shillings a day, he thought, was not too much. A compromise was eventually effected upon a basis of 1/6 per hour and three apprentices to two men.