effective in preventing women being terrorised in the home and on the job.

Officials are meeting to draft a series of measures they feel are necessary to give the agency more teeth in the community. And they plan to present their proposals to Government this month, Centre chairperson Mrs. Arleen Swan said yesterday.

Better enforcement of restraining orders and a programme for batterers were two of the measures on its list, she said.

The Centre, which fields more than 300 calls a year from battered women, also needed more funding to expand its education programmes, especially among teenagers, to "help them recognise what an abusive relationship is all about'', she said.

Mrs. Swan added she had received "tons'' of phone calls from women since revealing to The Royal Gazette last week that women in Bermuda were being threatened on the job daily by men with whom they have had relationships.

"There is a problem with stalking and harassment on the job,'' she said.

"The callers told me of several incidents where the husbands have actually come after them on their jobs and tried to get at them. It's not the restraining orders that are the problem, it's the lack of enforcement of them.'' Mrs. Swan had said last week that Police and the courts were failing to cooperate on restraining orders obtained by abused women.

The centre knew of at least 12 cases right now where women were getting menacing phone calls on the job from estranged partners, she had said. As a result they were going to work fearing for their safety.

"They say things like `I'll get you and don't think you're ever going to get away from me -- I'm watching you','' Mrs. Swan said. "There have been numerous cases where we've had to alert the employers and make special precautions for an employee's safety.'' Mrs. Swan said the Centre hoped to start a programme to rehabilitate wife beaters so it was "not healing only part of the sore''.

Mrs. Arlene Swann.