CLOSED TRADES

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 30, 28 April 1927, Page 9

CLOSED TRADES

APPRENTICE PROBLEM POLICY OF COURT EMPLOYERS’ VIEWPOINT “Are we not running a very serious risk of shutting out boys from skilled trades for which they may be exceptionally fitted, in which they may in the future be a huge success, and turning them into a trade for which they show no special ability, simply because is no other opening at the The policy of the Arbitration Court toward apprentices was commented on by Mr. S. E. "Wright, secretary of the Employers’ Association in court to-day. In the above paragraph he referred to the “drawing of a hard and fast quota by district proportion.’’ NOT A CRITICISM Air. Wright began: “My remarks are not in any way a criticism of the court’s policy, because anyone who has given the question any thought will admit that policy is probably the best that could * be adopted under the Act as it now stands. “I am, I presume, one of the extremists referred to in the pronouncement because I have advocated the principle that every boy or girl possesses the inherent right to choose the career for which he or she considers himself or herself best fitted. But in advocating this principle I have always also advocated that there should be some controlling authority, who would also act in an advisory capacity to would-be apprentices, whose business it would also be to guide them into a trade for which they are suited mentally and physically and in which they would have good prospects of future employment. APPRENTICES NOT POPULAR “In some trades boys are not popular with employers, because the employer cannot make immediate use of the boy’s services to advantage, and he is so bound by the restrictions of the Act that he refuses to be bothered with apprentices. Again in other trades the intermittency of work practically prohibits employers from undertaking the training of apprentices. In these cases special provisions for training may be required to keep up the supply of journeymen. “In slack times there will always be unemployment in all trades and if we are going to regard slack time unemployment as a bar to apprenticeship why not also prohibit boys from becoming ordinary labourers for is always more unemployment amongst that class than any other. IMPERTINENT BOYS “Since the advent of this Act it is reported by employers that the boys are becoming less subject to discipline and more impertinent and disobedient, which in many cases has been traced to outside influences. “A few days ago I was rung up and asked if apprentices in a certain trade were entitled to a fortnight’s holiday per annum as the apprentices in that factory were demanding it, and said they had been told it was their due under the order. This was evidently a distortion of the two week’s sick leave on pay provided in the order. This sort of thing all tends to prevent employers taking apprentices. “I think, sir, that an Act providing for special controlling and guiding authority who would be in close touch with the boys and parents, will prove the best means of dealing with this most important but vexing question of apprenticeships.” His Honour, Mr. Justice Frazer, suggested that an advisory committee should be set up to suggest to the boys what trades they would be best suited for, and to confer with the employers. Air. Wright: There might be preliminary eaminations. His Honour: Yes, that idea is carried out in Germany. It strikes me as a good one.