Whanganui District Board's chief executive officer has defended her decision to send an email to all the staff outlining some aspects of the on-going national industrial action between the board and resident doctors.
Julie Patterson sent the email on Wednesday afternoon and in it said she was doing so to counter "misinformation" coming from the Resident Doctors' Association. She included details of the offer the country's 20 DHBs, including Whanganui, had made.
In her email Mrs Patterson said she would not normally comment to staff on industrial negotiations, "especially when a union has exercised its right to take industrial action".
"However, with regret, due to the misinformation that is being provided in regards to the negotiations with the Resident Doctors' Association (RDA) on the MECA (multi employer collective agreement) for registered medical officers (RMO), I have decided to make the actual offer available to all staff.
"As the union has stated publicly that it has already made these documents available to its members directly, my decision is not breaching any rules around communicating with staff during bargaining," she said.