POLITICAL

Hokitika Guardian, 24 November 1932, Page 3

POLITICAL

APPRENTICES BILL

WELL INGTON, November 22

By the Apprentices Bill which wasintroduced in the House yesterday afternoon tlie Arbitration Court is deprived of its powers of administration under tlie Act. These are transferred, mainly to an Apprenticeship Council. The Bill is a consolidation with amend merits, as it was held that a merely, amending Bill would leave the present legislation in a form very' difficult to comprehend, The ex.sting provisions have been arranged under four main headings of administration —apprenticeship,,, contracts, employers and apprentices— I and the general object of the Bill is to deprive the Arbitration Court cl its general administration of the Act. This has been achieved by transferring to the Minster of Labour of the Court's powers to appoint and discharge apprenticeship committees and to appoint distil t registrars to act where there is pv committee. The Minister is also given the power cf applying tlie operation of the Act to employers and apprentices and exempting them from it. The apprenticeship council which the- Bill sets up is composed of the Registrar of Apprentices, two employers’ representatives and two workers’ representatives. To tlrni have been transferred the principal powers of the Arbitration Court for the making cf apprenticeship orders, except the power requiring employers to employ apprentices. This latter provision has been dropped. The 'Court’s; power *>f hearing and determining appeals also passes to the courted. Tlie Court’s '-control over-the functioning of the committees and its power to make apprenticeship orders also pass to the council and tlie apprenticeship committees respectively. The Registrar of Apprentices is given wider powers and fuller responsibility, and tlie council's resolution, can only bo passed by a majority .which includes the registrar. The only function left to the Arbitration Court is to fix the payments, if any, to he made, to apprentices on the bankruptcy ol their employers.