Jobs will be lost as St John Ambulance looks to slash $30m due to Covid-19, CEO says in memo

1 NEWS understands the charity applied for the Covid-19 wage subsidy but was turned down.

1 NEWS understands St John Ambulance is being forced to save $30 million dollars, as it feels the effects of Covid-19.

In an internal email, staff were warned impacts will be felt across the organisation, and that they will “need to cut back on staff numbers in most directorates”.

Chief executive Peter Bradley said “the situation that we now find ourselves in is unavoidable and not something that we are entering into lightly”.

He said while details of where cost saving measures will be made, the organisation’s hoping some additional Government support will eventuate.

St John Ambulance is not listed in the Government’s wage subsidy database.

In a separate earlier memo, St John confirmed they applied to the Ministry of Social Development for some relief, as part of the wage subsidy scheme.

Ambulance staff adjusting operation to make sure patients and staff are kept safe.

The organisation was told it did not qualify, despite a 40 per cent reduction in non-ambulance related income since the Covid-19 outbreak. 

It says funding received from the Government to run the ambulance service negatively affected their eligibility.

The subsidy would have given the organisation $4.5m in relief.

St John has been approached for comment.

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