Thames Star WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 19, 1934. THE APPRENTICES' ACT.

Thames Star, Volume LXV, Issue 19212, 19 September 1934, Page 2

Thames Star

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 19, 1934. THE APPRENTICES' ACT.

"With maflea towamoY none; with ohnrHy for all; with fimwoao in ftho right, aa Qod sives us to «m ths-rieht."—Lincoln.

The fact that Parliament has before it three petitions for the repeal of the Apprentices Act, 1923, will probably lead to the overdue examination of the effects of a piece of labour legislation which now operates in conditions very different in some respects from those of 10 or 12 years ago. The petitioners urge that the Act was produced by the labour shortage of the Avar period, which gave boys the chance to earn high wages at unskilled trades and ■so made it hard for employers in the skilled trades to attract and hold apprentices. From this point of view the purpose of the Act was to assure industry of the necessary succession of skilled labour; and from this point of view, also, as the petitioners say, it was a safeguard against a danger that was passing as times changed. The statement that the Act, "far from achieving its purpose, . . . had definitely the

effect of reducing to a minimum opportunities for boys to enter skilled trades," is one which requires a good deal of amplification and explanation. If it means that some trades or all trades could have absorbed more apprentices without later labour displacements, it is a sharp criticism of the system of regulation and control set up under the Act. If it means that more could have been absorbed, but with some possible dis- . placement later, the argument has less value; for although the Act was intended to protect apprentices, it was not intended to endanger journeymen. At first it fixed the maxiproportion of apprentices to journeymen that employers could engage, though this clause was dropped in 1927 in favour of more flexible safeguards. Clearly, if the Act has shut'out boys who might have been admitted without glutting the skilled labour trades, this needs to be established by direct statistical evidence and by reference to the specific causes in the conditions laid down. These issue from the Court of Arbitration, specially empowered for the purpose, and from Apprenticeship Committees, set up for different industries and areas. But it | is this fact that directs attention to a reason for the legislation, apparently not mentioned by the petitioners. It was a purpose of the Act to remove the Settlement of conditions between employers and apprentices from the wrestling arena of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act; and that this was a reasonable purpose is hard to dispute. The petitioners desire to restore the status quo; that is, to have apprentices provided for, as they were, generally, before 1923, in the ordinary awards and agreements. It is sufficient to say that circumstances have so far changed that this, no less than any other part of the machinery of the Act, jnay very well J be critically examined.