EMPLOYMENT FOR BOYS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19722, 13 December 1926, Page 12

EMPLOYMENT FOR BOYS

APPRENTICESHIP PROBLEM WORKING OF QUOTA SYSTEM. PHASES OF ACT CRITICISED. 4 4 While I am not prepared to condemn the Apprentices Act of 1923 as a whole, it has certainly not been as successful as was anticipated in some of its provisions,” said Mr S. E. Wright, secretary of the Auckland Employers* Association, in an address to the Auckland Rotary Club. ‘ 4 one of the objects for which it was designed was to enable more boys to enter the skilled trades, and in this it has failed lamentably. Instead of a larger proportion of boys being allowed to apprentice themselves, the opposite effect has been produced, and in some trades the number of apprentices has been even further • restricted.” i Mr Wright detailed the two clauses cd* the Act which provide for the fixing of the proportion of apprentices to tradesmen in any one group industries in a district, and also the proportion to the trtulesmen employed by any ■ one employer. In the first case, the Arbitration Court would have to fix the

'J proportion, but in the second the power , e could be delegated by the Court to an ■_ Apprentice Committee. This had had strange results, he said. The district quota had usually been 3 _ fixed at a fraction less than the propor- | tion allowed to individual employers. There had been cases where employers, h willing and able to train apprentices. > a found their individual quota full, al>t though there was still more room for r apprentices under the district quota. On the other hand, in trades in which it was possible for all employers to en- ' gage apprentices, they had found that ; the district quota was full before every I I employer had obtained his full number. The Carpent-ering Trade. e. 93 As an illustration of the first case, Mr Wright instanced the carpentering trade . A building contractor could never be certain how many journeymen i he would be able to employ over a cer L tain period, land as a result he might S at times find himself saddled with a 1 number of apprentices for whom he ■ could find no work. Afanv employers I i in this trade were diffident about em- . ' ploying any apprentices at all. The ’ : opposite w*as provided in the electrical | and plumping trades, where work was * more constant, and consequently all employers would take boys. But often the district quota was filled before employers could secure their full number. ; ‘‘The Act. therefore/’ said Mr Wright. 14 by including a district and an individual quota, has proved to be “■ I only a double-barrelled weapon for furthere limiting the number of apprentices. Each employer should be alrp j lowed all the apprentices for whom he J- 5 ® has facilities, and fixed quotas, both In district and individual, should be deleted from apprentice orders. Very

few, if any, employers would burden themselves with a surplus of apprentices under present conditions.” Criticising a remark by Mr Rowley, secretary of the Labour Department, tha there was still room for over 6000 apprentices in New Zealand, Mr Wright said it was quite evident that he had dealt with the district quota as if it applied to the Dominion as a whole, and not to separate districts. He thought Air Rowley’s inquiries had been confined more especially to the building trades, and the speaker had already given the reasons why it was impossible for every employer in that trtade to take a full complement of apprentices.* He suggested that the building trade required special consideration and treatment in this direction.

Attitude of the Unions. 44 It is admitted on every hand that it is most desirable for every boy to learn a trade or skilled occupation ' rather than be forced to take up un- ' skilled work,” Mr Wright continued. • * I have never yet met any person, employer or unionist, who has had the courage to deny that. Yet on every occasion unions have strenuously sought to put the greatest possible restrictions on boys who wish to enter their trades. In effect, the unionist says that every boy should be allowed to apprentice himself to a trade, but it must be to. any trade but his own.

44 The position as I see it is this: j Next month in Auckland, a large number of boys will leave school with the object of starting work. Probably over 500 will seek to enter apprenticeships in skilled trades, but there will be \ery few openings for them. The engineering, electrical, plumbing, cabinetmaking. and motor-mechanic trades have practically their full quotas, and these arc the favourite trades with boys. The new statistics as to the number of journeymen will not be collected until next April and even then they will not 1* available for some time. Last year it was September before the figures were known. What is to become of the surplus boys? It is not hard to prophesy bitter disappointment for a number of ambitious lads. Support for the Boys. 44 The Arbitration Court has shown itself to be unsympathetic. The j Labour Department is willing to do its ! best, but is hampered by the terms of • the Act and the orders of the Court, although the Secretary for Labour apto be more concerned in defending the Act and throwing the blame for . its non-success on the employers, than jas to what is to happen to the boys. My object is aoHs®s»ing you to-day is an endeavour ? i»li st your sympathies and on behalf of the rising generation of workers. The employers are quite capable of taking care of themselves. The unions have proved that they need no outside assistance, but the lads do require help, if their ambitions are to be fulfilled. “The State, by making provision for free schooling, has admitted the right of every child to a good primary education. Every boy passing out of school has an inherent right to fit him-

self for the battle of life to the best of his ability, and in the mtanner which seems best to him and his parents. In the disputes between unions and employers the rights of the boys appear to have been lost sight of, and on their behalf I appeal to you to investigate iand advocate their cause.”