Salvation Army Drama

The vaccine rollout program with its mandates has caused splits within families, communities and society as a whole.  No sector of society has been untouched by the controversy that medical coercion has brought into our lives. RDA has heard that the even The Salvation Army in Victoria has been adversely affected by the discriminatory separation of Victorian society. 

The Salvation army has its roots firmly entrenched in the Christian ethos. Under its mission and vision statement it says its “mission is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and meet human needs in His name without discrimination” (The Salvation Army, 2022).

You might expect it would act in a way that reflects those values it was built upon and to stay true to its Christian heritage.

But the mandates appear to have caused a tension between the vision of the Salvation army as an organisation and how it acts, exacerbated by Government regulations and hefty fines for not complying, particularly within the employment services arm of the VIC Salvation Army organisation, Employment Plus, which helps people to find jobs.

RDA understands from an anonymous source that during the past two years all staff in the employment services arm worked from home. A call to all vaccinated staff to come back to work in the office by January 2022, has apparently been met with some resistance from staff that see it as unfair that they should be made to return to office duties, whilst the 30% of staff who are unvaccinated are still able to work from home. It is alleged that the culture has gradually become “toxic and divisive”.

Management are alleged to be strongly pro-vaccination and to talk negatively about unvaccinated prospective clients seeking employment or further education, saying that it is not worth assisting these clients, as they will not be able to partake in the “vaxxed economy”.  For this reason, vaccinated staff are alleged to be pressuring their clients to take the vaccine, and are alleged to be talking in a negative light about these client’s choices. It is understood that some unvaccinated clients are not happy with the pressure put on them by Salvation Army staff to get vaccinated.

According to our source, the unvaccinated staff feel uneasy and try to hide their vaccination status from their work colleagues for fear of judgement, leading to excuses about why they are unable to attend the office for meetings.

The Salvation Army employment services have apparently also created a rule that staff cannot even meet in parks for work-related matters. That includes meeting other staff casually during work hours. It appears that they have taken the “must stay home” quite strictly and literally.

According to our source, the top-down approach of management has not been conducive to fostering a harmonious workplace, with management mainly focusing on its bottom line and meeting Key Performance Indicators which emphasise getting high client numbers so as to receive government funding.

It is alleged that at first management told staff in Victoria that no one would lose their job over the VIC government mandates, though that tune has changed, with management now informing staff in Victoria that they have 6 weeks to be vaccinated or stood down.

But The Salvation Army’s Employment Plus arm could act within the framework of its mission statement and values. One practical way this could be achieved, would be to retain the 30% unvaccinated staff to cater for the cohort of clients who are unvaccinated and can only attend appointments via video/audio call. Instead of playing it smart, keeping their workforce and having an unvaccinated team catering to those unvaccinated clients, the Salvos are alleged to be planning to fire the unvaccinated staff.

As an institution that attests to Christian values, there is a responsibility to adhere to those values, even if it means doing things differently from the way of the world. After all, it is the difference, that makes a difference!  It is precisely those Christian values that add salt and light to the world and give an opportunity for an organisation like The Salvation Army to stand up, oppose discrimination, and the show the world the right way forward according to its Christian ethos.

To its shame the Salvation Army does not appear to be acting according to its own values, mission and vision statements. It seems to be forgetting the very reason for which it came into being – to help people in need.

So, as it stands now, it appears that Employment Plus in VIC stands to lose 30% of its staff. Sadly, and ironically, those staff may well soon become clients of the very same service in which they were employed.

The Salvation Army Victoria had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publishing this story.

References:

The Salvation Army (2022). Mission and Vision. Available at https://www.salvationarmy.org.au/about-us/mission-and-vison (Accessed 8 February 2022)