St John has pulled an appeal for donations towards the paramedics who helped in the aftermath of the Christchurch terror attack due to complaints.
Fifty people were killed and a further 50 injured when a gunman opened fire inside the Deans Ave and Linwood Ave mosques on Friday, March 15.
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The appeal sat on the home page of the St John website and asked users to donate to help the crews who responded to the Christchurch tragedy.
But it provoked anger from the staff, who say it would have done nothing of the sort and was just the organisation trying to raise capital.
"Staff are really angry that St John has used this catastrophe, and their hard work during it, to ask for more money from the community through advertising on its website.
"It implied the money would go to ambulance officers when none of these donations are earmarked for ambulance officers and staff are fighting for decent pay."
A St John spokesperson said the organisation added the option to donate for Christchurch to the website after it received a number of requests from people who wanted to help.
"This was never promoted or advertised and due to internal feedback, we have now removed this link," spokesperson Beverley Tse told Stuff.
"Please note, this was not a deliberate ask or advertisement for donations and this is something that we would never do in a situation like this."
St John is only partially funded by the Government, the rest of the funding coming from community and corporate donations, fundraising and commercial activities.
The charity has been embroiled in an industrial dispute with its staff for months, with at least 20 partial strike notices issued so far according to the union.
Striking paramedics have so far refused to take part in event work, graffitied their ambulances and failed to invoice patients.
The ambulance graffiti was replaced with messages of support for Christchurch in the wake of the attack.
St John has pulled an appeal for donations towards the paramedics who helped in the aftermath of the Christchurch terror attack due to complaints.
Fifty people were killed and a further 50 injured when a gunman opened fire inside the Deans Ave and Linwood Ave mosques on Friday, March 15.
The appeal sat on the home page of the St John website and asked users to donate to help the crews who responded to the Christchurch tragedy.
But it provoked anger from the staff, who say it would have done nothing of the sort and was just the organisation trying to raise capital.
"Staff are really angry that St John has used this catastrophe, and their hard work during it, to ask for more money from the community through advertising on its website.
"It implied the money would go to ambulance officers when none of these donations are earmarked for ambulance officers and staff are fighting for decent pay."
A St John spokesperson said the organisation added the option to donate for Christchurch to the website after it received a number of requests from people who wanted to help.
"This was never promoted or advertised and due to internal feedback, we have now removed this link," spokesperson Beverley Tse told Stuff.
"Please note, this was not a deliberate ask or advertisement for donations and this is something that we would never do in a situation like this."
St John is only partially funded by the Government, the rest of the funding coming from community and corporate donations, fundraising and commercial activities.
The charity has been embroiled in an industrial dispute with its staff for months, with at least 20 partial strike notices issued so far according to the union.
Striking paramedics have so far refused to take part in event work, graffitied their ambulances and failed to invoice patients.
The ambulance graffiti was replaced with messages of support for Christchurch in the wake of the attack.
St John sent this statement to Newshub after publishing:
"Due to the large number of public requests, we added a Christchurch donate section on our homepage late Friday.
"Due to internal feedback from our people the link was removed first thing Monday morning. It didn't sit well with our people and it was seen as insensitive - I agree and I wasn't comfortable with it once I saw it."
"We were simply responding to public demand and providing a channel through which New Zealanders could show their support and provide assistance."
Newshub.
