SUSTENANCE RATES

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 221, 12 June 1919, Page 3

SUSTENANCE RATES

SOLDIERS LEARNING TRADES

NEW REGULATIONS

New regulations are being prepared dealing with the payment of sustenance rates to returned?, soldiers who are learning trades, eiHier as students in technical Bchools or as subsidised workers in factories and workshops. It is proposed that in inture the issue of permits to returned soldiers to work at less than the award rates of pay shall not be done by tho Inspector of Factories, but that the wage to b6 paul io a trainee shall be assessed by a committee of three, consisting of the employer' or his representative, ft representative of the trade union coucorned, and a representative of the I'epa'tmtion Uepartiiient.

The wage during the first or trial mouth of the soldier's engagement as' a trainee is to be brought up to JI3 instead of =£2 10s. a week. In tie mor<) skilled trades, where a longer period than b. year is required for training, it is suggested to the district boards that u new agreement bo made with the trainee at tho end of a year and that retained subsidy for the lirat year be paid over. In regard to this practice of retaining a portion of the subsidy, a new practice ia being introduced. Formerly it wae tho custom of'the Uepartment to-retain half of the subsidy a« a surety ihal the man would go ondeligently with his trainiiiS. It is now to bo the rule that a flat rate of five shillings a week 6hall be retained, as it is considered that there may be hardship to the soldiers under the old rule.

Iho Department is prepared to assist young men to.learn tradesmen if they have suffered no u,tu- disability, ivlio eiilisted at so y«mng'an age that they had not entered upon a trade before joining thearmy. These young men are assisted in tho 6anie way as are men partially disabled, being given a sustenance into while they aro working at their new trade, or learning it in a technical school.

Now rules are to be"introduced regarding the payment of sustenance. Formerly the practice has been to pay sustenance up to a certain amount inclusive of pension to. men. attending technical classes, but to 'give the amount exclusive of pension to men in workshops. It has now been decided to give tho sustenance exclusive of pension to trainees in technical schools who in , © working in classes 30 hours per week or more, , this being considered to lio equal to full time employment, A more geneTous allowance is to be given to apprentices also. They are to be> assured £3 a week, exclusive of peusion, instead-of ,«£3 a week inclusive 'of pension. • ' ,