Pubdate: Mon, 07 Aug 2000 Source: Dominion, The (New Zealand) Copyright: 2000 The Dominion Contact: P O Box 1297, Wellington, New Zealand Fax: +64 4 474-0350 Website: http://www.inl.co.nz/wnl/dominion/index.html Author: Paul Mulrooney SOME BUSH WORKERS 'PART-PAID IN DRUGS' Rogue forestry sub-contractors were paying some of their casual workers partly in cannabis, a former Occupational Safety and Health scientist said on Sunday. Mark Fielder, who is now the health and safety manager at Waiariki Institute of Technology in Rotorua, said some workers in forestry gangs were so indoctrinated in the drug culture they worked in that they accepted the arrangement without question. "In remote areas, cannabis is accepted as a payment system. A lot of these workers are on the dole so they're being paid under the table say $100 in cash and $100 in cannabis." Mr Fielder said that in his position with OSH he had come across such cases from Te Kuiti, the east coast and Northland. Legitimate contractors were the ones that suffered, he said, as by using cannabis for cash crop payment the rogue operators were cutting their costs and were therefore able to put in lower tenders for jobs. Peter Clark, chief executive of east coast forestry firm PF Olsen and Company, said that though he had no personal knowledge of such activity, any sub-contractor working that way was only short-changing the industry. "Forestry employers won't tolerate contractors misleading their workers that way." Economic Development Minister Jim Anderton said he also had no knowledge of such under-the-table practices, but said that anyone caught would be subject to prosecution. He said provisions in the Health and Safety in Employment Act, now being reviewed and to be tabled in Parliament this year, would tighten regulations and make illegal payments more difficult to get away with. Mr Fielder said that in an effort to stop youth who were smoking cannabis from as early as 10 years old, the institute budgeted $10,000 in the past financial year for a drug testing programme for its students funded from their fees. A lot of trainees, as part of their course learning to work in solid wood-mill processing and on logging contracts with forestry companies, were required to undergo the testing. - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart