Section 11
SEC. 11. The same Act is hereby amended by adding the following Sections immediately after Section 6 thereof, which read as follows: "SEC. 6-A. The wage rate for apprentices at the initial stage shall be seventy-five percent of the statutory minimum wage and their graduated wage scales or progressive wage increases shall take off therefrom. However, if there are serious considerations why an employer cannot meet the above requirements and upon presentation of adequate proof to this effect, the Secretary of Labor, upon recommendation of the Bureau, may authorize a lower initial rate for the particular program, but such rate should not be less than fifty percent of the legal minimum wage: Provided, That periodic wage increases for apprentices should be uniform but scaled in a manner which at its later stages would not surpass or otherwise disturb wage structures fixed by collective bargaining agreements or otherwise in effect in the firm for journeymen or regular workers in the same occupational classification as the apprentice: Provided, further, That a reduced rate to the extent allowed in this Section, shall be permitted upon petition by any employer whose apprenticeship program is being carried on through an approved training institution under Section 4-B, paragraphs (b) and (c) hereof: Provided, finally, That the employer who has not been authorized to pay a reduced initial wage rate may pay his apprentices a wage of not less than fifty percent of the statutory minimum during the first month of employment, the same being a period of orientation, and the seventy-five percent initial rate fixed in this Section shall follow thereafter. "SEC. 6-B. Any person who pays his apprentices wages at less than the sub-minimum rates fixed for them in their apprenticeship agreements shall be penalized with a fine of not less than five hundred pesos nor more than three thousand pesos, with subsidiary imprisonment in case of insolvency."