Government agencies under fire for relatively high use of NDAs at work
Health New Zealand has defended its use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) as "added protection for confidentiality" following a complaint from the Labour Party.
There have been 67 staff at Health NZ who have signed NDAs, including senior leaders who brief media and members of Parliament in the select committee process, the Labour Party revealed.
But Health NZ Chief Executive Margie Apa told Radio New Zealand that the NDAs were only for employees involved in the "detailed planning" to address the recent financial pressures facing the organisation.
"This was an added protection for confidentiality, given the importance of robustly understanding the extent of the financial situation," Apa told RNZ.
"We have also used non-disclosure agreements for staff dealing with budget-sensitive information during the Budget 2024 process. This followed advice from the Ministry of Health."
Apa further pointed out that NDAs do not prevent staff from raising issues of misconduct, poor practice, or problems in the workplace.
"This includes the ability of employees to make protected disclosures under the Protected Disclosures (Protection of Whistleblowers) Act 2022," the chief executive said.
'Blanket ban' from Health NZ
Health NZ's defence came after Labour Party revealed this week that they filed a complaint to the Public Service Commission over the agency's "high number" of NDAs.
Ayesha Verrall, Labour's health spokesperson, accused the organisation of trying to use the NDAs to "block legitimate scrutiny and stifle internal debate in Te Whatu Ora."
"The government aims to cut $1.4 billion from the health system and is using these NDAs to hide where those cuts will come from and who they will affect. All the people involved are under threat of legal action if they speak out," Verrall said in a statement.
According to the Labour spokesperson, the document they've seen is a "blanket ban" on anything related to Health NZ, including "ideas."
"These agreements go well beyond that, banning 'all and any information about Health NZ and its business' as well as 'the content of all discussions, correspondence, or other communications' between the staff member and Te Whatu Ora," Verrall said.
Aside from Health NZ, the Ministry for the Environment is also under criticism after 38 employees there have signed NDAs between March and June this year.
