H.—llb

(4) What prerequisite education should be, laid down for apprentices wishing to enter industry: (5) The schedule of operations and skills which employers would be obliged to teach their apprentices in each industry : (6) Wages, hours, and other conditions of employment to be incorporated in contracts of apprenticeship in each industry. While we think that Dominion Apprenticeship Committees should try to ascertain the views of local Apprenticeship Committees on matters to be incorporated in apprenticeship orders, we do not consider that there should be any power of delegation by Dominion Committees to local Committees. We also visualize the possibility of informal conferences of delegates from Dominion Committees, for the purposes of mutual discussion on broad matters of policy. LOCAL APPRENTICESHIP COMMITTEES When the Apprentices Act, 1923, became law, it was hoped by the Minister of Labour that the voluntary activities of the Apprenticeship Committees created by the Act would ensure its full and satisfactory working, and he expressly desired the Labour Department to refrain from taking to itself any of the functions of the Committees. For a time many of the Committees worked very well, this in itself indicating that the main structure of the Act is sound ; but when the first apprenticeship orders had been made, and with the coming of the depression, some of the Committees did not continue their activities. An example has been brought to our notice where a Committee, until the last few weeks, had not met for ten years, although in the area controlled by the Committee there are sixteen apprentices in the particular industry concerned. A few Committees have remained vigorous, however, and recently others have come to life again. Many of our witnesses advocated practices that are already written into the Act, and, under examination, either showed that they were not aware that the Committees had the powers they sought, or admitted that Committees had failed to use their powers. In many cases failure of the Committee was ascribed to its lack of an executive officer, it being stated that members of the Committee did not have the necessary time to give to the work that a full use of their powers demanded. We found, too, that very few apprentices indeed knew of the existence of the Apprenticeship Committees, even in industries in which the Committees are still relatively active. The current discussions on apprenticeship that led to the appointment of this Commission have had some effect in reawakening and livening up a few Committees, and the existence of the Commission itself has had similar effects. We think that our sittings have done something to educate many of those concerned with apprentices in matters with which they ought to have been conversant. We believe that local Apprenticeship Committees hold a very important place in the administration, of apprenticeship, and we recommend that the system of such Committees laid down in the Act of 1923 be retained. In each locality where there are sufficient apprentices in an industry or branch of an industry, an Apprenticeship Committee should be set up in the manner prescribed in the present Act, provided, of course, there is not already a Committee in existence covering that locality and industry. So far as the areas to be controlled by local Apprenticeship Committees are concerned, wo recommend that the principles set out in section 4 of the Act of 1923 and in section 6 of the Amendment Act of 1930 should continue to operate. The constitution of each Committee would parallel that of the Dominion Committees—that is, it would consist of three representatives of workers and three of employers (a majority with trade experience), of the Deputy Commissioner of Apprenticeship (or his delegate), as Chairman, and of a person conversant with technical education, appointed from their staffs by the governing bodies of schools providing technical education for apprentices within the area, and failing that, by the Minister of Education. Our reasons for restricting representation to three workers and three employers are to keep Committees of manageable size, and to give the members a fuller feeling of responsibility. The Deputy Commissioner, as Chairman of the Committee, would have a deliberative but not a casting vote, and the educationist should have some knowledge of the trade with which the Committee is concerned. Tn any given district there might be several persons connected with technical education acting on various Committees. The powers of local Apprenticeship Committees would be those delegated to them by the Court of Arbitration or set out in the terms of the Dominion apprenticeship orders. The present Act gives the Court discretionary authority to delegate eleven powers in regard to apprenticeship matters ; of those, four should in future be delegated only to the Dominion Committees —that is, those relating to the period of probation, compulsory attendance at technical classes, examinations, and proportion. The powers remaining with local Committees, if delegated by the Court, would include cancellation of contracts, prohibition of employers from employing apprentices, transfer of apprentices, extending facilities for training within the scope of businesses, withholding of increases of wages in certain circumstances, ordering that periods during which any increase is withheld shall not be included in the period of apprenticeship, and entering upon premises to inquire into the training, progress, and welfare of apprentices. We very strongly recommend that it be made a breach of the Act to employ any person as an apprentice without the prior consent in writing of the appropriate local Committee. We urge this provision because so many cases have come to our notice where the jurisdiction of the Committees has, in effect, been defeated by non-compliance with section 8 of the principal Act, which requires registration within certain prescribed periods, and with section 10 of the amendment of 1930, which requires that every employer shall within three days after engaging any -person as an apprentice give notice of such engagement to the District Kegistrar in the locality concerned. We consider that section 10 of the Apprentices Amendment Act, 1930, should be repealed, and that the necessary amendment should be made to section 3 of the Apprentices Amendment Act, 1925, to comply with our recommendation. A number of instances have come to our notice where an Apprenticeship Committee has not had the opportunity of considering an apprenticeship contract until many months after the initial engagement of the apprentice. In such cases it is often very difficult for the Committee to exercise its discretion by declining to approve of a contract without doing a serious injustice to the apprentice, and it is not to be wondered at that, as a result, some Committees have grown apathetic in the carrying-out of what are, after all, voluntary duties.

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