The troubled ambulance trust is offering senior staff members up to £80K to quit despite claims of racism after staff ‘imitated monkey noises’ and ‘laughed at colleagues fasting during Ramadan’.
The East of England Ambulance Service Trust (EEAST) has launched a ‘mutually agreed withdrawal scheme’ which is only available during the two week window in April.
It invites senior workers to apply for a payout of up to £80,000 to step down from their post – but this is only available to staff with or above the 8a pay scale band, which currently has the starting pay rate. salary £48,526.
Workers who successfully apply to the scheme will then be paid half a month’s wages for each year they work in the NHS – with a maximum payout of £80,000.
It comes amid ongoing accusations of a bad culture within the faith, including ongoing problems with racism and discrimination.
A damning report published last month revealed shocking examples of behavior within the trust, including imitating monkey noises and a worker ‘wearing black face’ at a staff party.
Troubled The East of England Ambulance Service Trust is offering senior staff members up to £80K to quit despite claims of racism after staff ‘imitated monkey sounds’ and ‘laughed at colleagues fasting during Ramadan’. They unveiled a ‘mutually agreed-upon resignation scheme’, available during the two-week window in April (photo Tom Abell, Chief Executive of EEAST)
McKenzie LLP, a consulting firm specializing in equality, diversity and inclusion was hired to produce the report on EEAST, which contacted 120 Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) staff members. There were 58 employees who gave feedback.
One person said that ‘EEAST suffers from the phenomenon of “racism bias” which I myself experienced at least 20 times in faith in 20 months’, ITV reported.
Some of the responses describe how BME staff were asked to ‘translate for patients’ who spoke ‘gobbledygook’ despite not actually speaking the language themselves.
One said: ‘Assumptions were made based on the color of your skin, I was asked to translate for someone who spoke Arabic, the reason given for the request was that ‘I look like one of them’.’
At a work costume party, several employees said they complained because a manager’s husband “dressed like Mr T” and “dye himself black”.
Another respondent detailed one other run-in: ‘When my team orders a takeaway, they don’t order mine because they tell me they order curry and I’m probably sick of them because I have to eat it all the time. ‘
One trust worker, who did not wish to be named, said: ‘This appears to be a way for taxpayers to foot the bills for managers whose behavior may be causing the bad culture here.
“The paramedics are exhausted but won’t get a chance to apply because they are not in band 8a and above.”
Tom Abell, chief executive of EEAST, said: ‘We made the decision to launch this voluntary scheme – which is used frequently across the NHS – because we recognized that the trust was going through a period of cultural change that would last several years. many years.
‘Since I joined the Trust in August 2021, we have made significant progress in a number of areas which have been recognized by our regulators and we hope this scheme will help drive the further improvements we are working towards.’
MailOnline has reached out to the East of England Ambulance Trust for comment.
On March 16, EEAST signed UNISON’s new Anti-Racism Charter – the first NHS Trust to do so.
It aims to help tackle racism in the public sector and ‘binds organizations and their leaders to a promise’ designed to stop ‘all forms of conscious or unconscious racial bias’
This was said to be done through ‘subconscious bias’ training for all staff members and ‘strong’ specific equality training for management.
Part of the charter states that organizations must have a ‘clear and visible anti-racism programme’ and they must also report ethnic pay gaps and monitor disciplinary and grievance processes.
