Claims report on Ambulance Victoria’s toxic work culture yet to be addressed

Ken Lay has been accused of being more interested in “preserving his reputation” than addressing the issues “crippling” Ambulance Victoria.

Ambulance Victoria has come under fire for stalling work to address a toxic culture inside the service that left some paramedics suicidal.

In November a scathing report outlined widespread reports of discrimination, sexual harassment, bullying and victimisation within the service, calling for immediate action to fix the culture.

But eight months on, substantial work is yet to begin, with a tender issued just last month for a contractor to lead the co-design of Ambulance Victoria’s organisational values.

It comes as former chairman Ken Lay faces allegations he turned a blind eye to the problems that plagued the service.

The Herald Sun can reveal Mr Lay was made aware of concerns about one senior staff member who resigned following an internal investigation, but was subsequently hired to manage public relations.

Ambulance Victoria has come under fire for stalling work to address a toxic culture. Picture: Getty Images

The employee resigned from Ambulance Victoria in 2018 following what employees have described as “a bullying investigation into her leadership”.

The investigation, which Ambulance Victoria denies was a bullying probe, was carried out after a series of complaints about the senior employee.

Ambulance Victoria later funded a trip to a Harvard management course in the USA for the worker while the investigation was under way.

She resigned from Ambulance Victoria days after the report from the internal investigation was handed down.

The Herald Sun can reveal Mr Lay was made aware of concerns about the worker in an email in 2018.

The email warned of a string of resignations, excess workload, and poor behaviour.

“There is currently a crisis in the corporate area under your chairmanship, and if something isn’t fixed it may well lead to broken people taking drastic action,” the email said.

“Good people are leaving, in many cases without a job to go to, because they are broken.

Former staffers said they had long worried about the direction of Ambulance Victoria under Mr Lay’s stewardship.

“If Ambulance Victoria was a machine, WorkSafe would have slapped a prohibition order on it, preventing it from being used because it was unsafe.

“But it doesn’t have machines, it has people, and they are being broken.”

Mr Lay was told that no-one was willing to speak up about the allegations, because the senior figure was hired under his chairmanship, and had previously worked with him.

Mr Lay left Ambulance Victoria last month, less than six months after a final Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission report into AV’s toxic culture was made public.

He resigned as Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police in late 2014, soon after a similar report was published into the force.

Former staffers, speaking to the Herald Sun anonymously, said they had long worried about the direction of Ambulance Victoria under Mr Lay’s stewardship.

“I’m concerned he’s more interested in preserving his own reputation than addressing the issues currently crippling AV,” one said.

An Ambulance Victoria spokeswoman denied the organisation was stalling its response to the VEOHRC report. Picture: Luis Enrique Ascui

“Ken was brought to the board in 2015 to ‘continue to vital reform and moderinzation, ensuring the culture is better, the response times improve and the workforce is better resourced and supported’,” they said.

“He has failed on all fronts, and it wasn’t until a paramedic went public with abuse allegations in 2020 that the VEOHRC review was announced.”

An Ambulance Victoria spokeswoman denied the organisation was stalling its response to the VEOHRC report.

She said one third of recommendations from the report had been implemented to a moderate, significant or full extent.

“We have already taken significant steps towards implementing recommendations in the VEOHRC report – and our roadmap on how we plan to transform our organisation is publicly available,” she said.