AFTER more than 30 years of volunteering as an ambulance officer, Charlie Wroth has been tossed on the scrap heap by St John Ambulance’s paid officials.
We tried to find out why our colleague was removed from his position as president of the Toodyay sub-centre last month and sacked from the organisation as a whole but hit the brick wall of bureaucracy.
We were told the reasons for his dismissal were “confidential” and that was as far as we got.
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It is not the first time that St John administrators have sought to remove Charlie from the local sub-branch.
A year or so ago he was ‘paused’.
If you strip back this ‘weasel word’ to common language, it means he was rendered powerless to perform any volunteering duties and was sworn to secrecy.
He couldn’t even tell his wife why he wasn’t answering any ambulance call-outs.
St John officials instructed Charlie to tell everyone that he was “on holidays”.
Perhaps Charlie’s forthright comments in representing sub-branch volunteers was an affront to management who issues directives which at times are at odds with the volunteer experience.
Whatever the reason, to summarily dismiss a dedicated volunteer and have him escorted to and from the premises is disgraceful.
The remaining volunteers have been put in the invidious position of either resigning in solidarity with Charlie or continuing to volunteer for an organisation that does not respect years of selfless commitment to the local community and surrounding areas.
George Murray
Morangup
