YOUTH EMPLOYMENT

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 30, 29 October 1937, Page 5

YOUTH EMPLOYMENT

■Press Association.)

Difficulties of Manufacturers in New Zealand

(By Telegraph-

WELLINGTON, This Day. The annual report of the New Zealand Employers' Federation? dealing with the future of youth, says; "Much of the industrial legislation has intensifi6d difficulties in the way of their absorption into satisfaetory channels of employment. No substantial increase in the number of apprentices engaged is yet apparent. The reasons are probably tWo — first, the lessons of the past seven or eigln years have made employers dubious in the extremo about apprenticing youths under the conditions imposed by the Apprentices Act, 1923; and secondly, increased specialisation of industry ia Ncw Zealand has meant a complete change from the old craft organisation of industry to the more modern and dfficient rationalised organisation. "It would still appear that the trainee system, almost unanimously supported by employers when the draft of the Apprentices and Trainee Bill was submitted to them from a special committee appointed by the federation some years ago, is worthy of a trial." A special seetion of the report deals with the question of standard rates of pay and sums up the position "as a reversal of previous practice, the onus now being on the employers to show where they justifiably* can do so that their industry is not one where casual vt intermittent work is the rule, rather than the exception, - and consequently not one where the Court 's standard rates should apply, wheteAs the onus was formerly on the workers' representatives to show that special conditions existed in their industry which justified some increase beyond the Court 's standard rates."