Intimidation a police matter

Press, 23 April 1984, Page 11

Intimidation a police matter

PA Nelson If P.E.P. workers intimidated and threatened supervisors and others workers, the local authority employing them should report the matter to the police, said the Labour Department’s Nelson district superintendent, Mr Guy Romano, yesterday.

Mr Romano was commenting on allegations by the Waimea senior noxious plants officer, Mr Graham Strickett, that some supervisors and good workers in Project Employment Programme gangs had been intimidated by other workers.

“If he has got workers doing that, he should report it to the police,” Mr

Romano said. He had been unaware of allegations of intimidation until they were published, he said. “P.E.P. workers are treated as ordinary workers and there is recourse to the law,” Mr Romano said. Commenting on the need for supervision on a one-to-four ratio to get work from the gangs, as Mr Strickett maintained, Mr Romano said that depended on the individual supervisor and the gang. Mr Strickett’s plan to have P.E.P. workers doing noxious plant control work on individual farms under the supervision of the farmer, was not possible under the scheme, Mr Romano said.