DHBs take legal action against RDA for breach of good faith

District Health Boards have filed legal proceedings against the Resident Doctors’ Association, alleging a breach of good faith bargaining over an employment agreement for junior doctors.

“We believe that repeated misleading and inaccurate statements by the RDA are not in the public interest and enough is enough,” DHBs spokesman Dr Peter Bramley says.

“We also believe that this misleading information is not in the interests of the RDA’s own members who are basing their decisions on the misrepresentations.” Dr Bramley said the RDA had overstepped the mark in its comments to media and to stakeholders and DHBs had had enough.

“We want the RDA to play by the rules and stay within the law.”

It was time for the RDA to focus its energy on resolving the dispute instead of disruption, Dr Bramley said.

Dr Bramley said DHBs would continue to negotiate in good faith to ensure local DHB clinicians and hospital managers could make decisions on rosters without interference by the union.

He said the DHBs’ objective remained ensuring quality patient care and meaningful training for doctors in a safe working environment. Meanwhile, DHBs were preparing for the next round of RDA strikes on 26 February, with a fifth strike being considered for 12 March.