ARBITRATION. COURT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9306, 5 August 1908, Page 3

ARBITRATION. COURT.

/. - — • — f INDENTURED APPRENTICES. I Mr v Justice ,Sim has delivered judgment iv the Timaru case of the Inspector of Awards v. O'Brien and Beaton, j which involves an important point in j reference to the employment of apprentices. The respondents are alleged to have committed a breach of the Timaru carpenters' award by employing two apprentices without having them indentured. The award, which embodies an agreement made by the parties, came into force on September 1, 1906, and provides that apprentices are to be bound for five years. At the date when the award came into force the respon- • dents had two apprentices in their ein- | ploy, and neither of them had been bound as apprentices in writing. There is no saving clause in the award. of existing agreements i with apprentices,' and it bocame the duty of employers who had uuindentured apprentices to have them properly bound within a reasonable ; time after the award came into force. I It was contended by the respondents • that as the term of apprenticeship is j fixed for five years, both apprentices i would be over nineteen years of age | before the end of the term, consej quently the indentures would be unj lawful and' void under Section 9 of ' the Master and Apprentice Act, 1865. It was further contended that ac the award in the present case required the respondents to do something that has boen- made unlawful by statute it was invalid and unenforceable so far as it applied to cases like the present one. The question was whether the jurisdiction of the Court in connection with tho employment of apprentices is controlled by the Master and Apprentice Act, 1865. The Court certainly had jurisdiction to deal with the subject of the employment in any industry of apprentices under the Industrial Concilia- , tion and Arbitration Act, 1905. Mr ■ Justico Chapman, in the case of the Inspector of Awards v. Savage (Bascand's case), adjudged that an indenture is not unlawful, but is merely unenforceable after the apprentice reaches the age of nineteen years. The Court agreed with this view. The Court, therefore, held that the award 13 binding on the respondents and is enforceable against them. They had committed a breach of award by not having the two workers apprenticed within a reasonable time after the award came into force. No penalty will be imposed sif the omission is remedied without delay. The term of apprenticeship will be five years, but the parties are entitled to reckon this from the respective dates on which apprentices first enter the service of the respondents. The respondents were ordered to pay the Inspector's disbursements for the fees of the Court. Mr Emslio appeared for the Inspector, Mr Kinnerney for O'Brien, and Mr Sargent for Beaton. [Peb Press Association.] DUNEDIN, August 5. The dispute between the Green Island Coal Miners' Union and the various colliery owners was before flic Arbitration Court fhis morning. Four owners were excluded, on Mr Scott's application th© Union representative not ©b- ■ jecting. Mr Scott* explained that tho employers had two references upon which thoy based their stipulations find conditions. One wa6 known ac the uniform reference, applicable to all Otago collieries, the other was called the Green Island reference, applying to i that district only. Mr Forbes, for the , Union, explained that the parties had 1 held two conferences, which had, failed j t:> effect a settlement of the dispute. : The men's reference, as filed in the Court, contained thirty clauses, as against tAventy-seven clauses in the em- \ ployons' reference. Tho case la pro- ' ceeding.