SHORTAGE OF BOOTMAKING OPERATORS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 183, 23 April 1918, Page 4

SHORTAGE OF BOOTMAKING OPERATORS

SUSPENSION OF AI'PRENTICES' CLAUSE APPLIED FOR.

By Telegraph—Press Association,

Dunedin, April2l. The members of the Arbitration Court to-day eat as a commission of inquiry to hear an application by the Boot Manufacturers' Association of New Zealand for the suspensS.ni of the apprentices' clause in the bootmakers awards of the Dominion. The clause states that apprentices shall- not exceed one apprentice to three journeymen. Mr. Mappledeck (Auckland) appeared for the employers, and Mr. Hunter (Christchuvch) for the workers. , Mr. Mappledeck said thai the request was made owing to difficulties arising through the war. They aslied the Court, to take the representations as being made with a Bincere oesiro to assist the country to the fullest extent possible, and to preserve tlio boot industry. With the callirig-iip of the Second Division, the association was' r-onfror.ted witli prospects of a still further decrease ui output. owing to the impossibility of securing skilled operators. They were unable to secure enough workers to carry out the contracts in hand, and the output was diminishing. Mr Hunter said the workers viewed the application with distrust and alarm. He suggested that tlio employers bad not made an houestl attempt to employ returned soldiers. Tlio employers had. not shown that they had ™ apprentices to the fullest limit. He submitted that the employers would get women workers if they offeredsufficient inducement. Evidence was given for the that none of the factories m Christchurch had the number of apprentices to which tliev were entitled, and that the employers in Auckland had made no effort to induce returned soldieis to enter the industry. ~ The Commission will report to Governor-General.