LAW REPORTS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2651, 23 December 1915, Page 9

LAW REPORTS

ARBITRATION COURT

RIGHTS OF APPRENTICES *

Mi'. Justice Stringer, president of' the Arbitration Court, has given his decision in ail application by the Inspector of Awards fur the interpretation of tho Wellington plumbers' and gasfitters' award regarding the conditions, of apprenticeship. The question submitted was: "Is the apprentico who is called up for compulsory military service under the Defence Act required- to make up such .time before entering on the next succeeding year of his apprenticeship?" ' The decision of the Court was that the question must be answered in the negative. At the time the award was made the Defence Act was in existence, and it must be assumedUhat the parties, to the award know that an apprentice might be liable to compulsory military service dur-ing-certain portions of his apprenticeship term, and mi provision having been inserted in the award, an apprentice could hot be required to make up tho time during which he was absent from work on defenco service, before entering on the next year of his apprenticeship. Absence of this character did not differ in character from alisence caused through illness. In the case in question, in which an apprentice was absent for six or seven months on military service in a term of apprenticeship of six years, the Court held that this absence would not be sufficient' to determine the apprenticeship. Applications for the determination of apprenticeship because of absence on military servico would have to be considered individually on their merits. '