Alasdair Thompson - full interview with Campbell Live

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Alasdair Thompson - full interview with Campbell Live

3News NZ

Alasdair Thompson

Alasdair Thompson

Employment and Manufacturers Association CEO Alasdair Thompson today said women don't earn as much as men because they take sick leave every month and have babies.
 
The comments have caused outrage, so Cambell Live's Mihingarangi Forbes decided to give him the chance to explain.
 
This is the full, uncut interview.
 
Watch Mihingarangi Forbes' full interview with Alasdair Thompson, CEO of the Employers Manufacturs Association.

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Comments

11/08/2012 7:40:54 p.m.

Monique wrote:

The gender pay gap is higher in the public sector....

20/07/2011 2:15:46 p.m.

So Funny wrote:

What a bloody idiot. All she asked was where he got his stats from and he plainly states that the beginning of the interview that "research shows", yet he skirts around the answer like a novice...I do assume he knows he's on camera??? Damn idiot

10/07/2011 3:20:50 a.m.

Anna wrote:

He should have organised himself sufficiently to bring data to the interview to back up his assertions. Any difference between men and women in time taken off needs to be statistically significant for it to generalisable to the whole population of workers; and to determine whether a difference is significant we need to know what the average amount of time off (using whatever units are relevant such as days per year) is for each gender and we need to know the sample size. But I think the media reaction could have focussed more on questions like why do women take more time off to look after sick children than men (assuming this assertion is true - I haven't heard anyone question this one)? I'm pretty sure it takes a sperm and an egg to make a baby but Alasdair kept saying things like 'Women have children' as if this is something exclusive to women. By keeping sick children at home you are in fact increasing the productivity of the total workforce, by not having your child transfer their virus to their classmates and then their parents and then the parents workmates etc, so perhaps the Ministry of Health should be paying compensation to employers when their employee stays home to look after sick children. In the long run this would probably enhance productivity as well as reduce total health expenditure.

6/07/2011 6:20:11 p.m.

Fulla wrote:

where are his stats? where are his actual facts? He is a idiot.

6/07/2011 5:21:29 p.m.

mother of FOUR wrote:

so where is the bullying?? i've watched this, gone back over where he was supposed to have stood over the "journalist". where is it??? i just don't see it! He didn't yell?? I find this journalist offensive. Get off the mob mentality people

5/07/2011 5:20:20 a.m.

bobberesford.com wrote:

Well at least TV-3 have finally put the whole thing on the site. previously they were slicing and dicing it dishonestly. I thought he was being hard done by and now I'm sure of it. In the short version he was being edited to look more agressive than he really was. He was just reacting, realising that Miss Forbes was trying to set him up....as she was. All the on-air statement / blooper demanded was half an apology , saying he hadn't put things in proper context etc....then mentioned a few more things related to the subject. Then everyone should have moved on. There is no way Thompson should have even been reprimanded - let alone sacked. Thompson is naturally blunt and direct, which means he is more likely to do a blooper, and why he made the radio statement - realising he was not being PC . He was absolutely right . On a Stuff column, there were women saying that, yes, at their work places women were taking time off for periods....and obviously there'll be more time off than men would take for issues with the children. TV-3 even checked the stats, after the event, and found that men were taking off about 6.8 days while women were taking off 8.4 , average. But the witch hunt / feeding frenzy goes on. This is just another case of the media finding something to destroy. Here, Miss Forbes talks very nicely with him, and he's opened up and been friendly too..... then at the end she springs loaded, unfair questions onto him - like what research he has - and he realises he's being set up. Either Forbes or her producer are trying to get him sacked, and she says as much by springing the silly idea that he can't represent half the workforce properly and should resign. He seems to feel rather betrayed by that....understandable. So he ends up confronting her on it - standing near her... not standing over her - and her cameraman is close by. He is not shouting at her, as she says. This is trial by television at its worst...especially with the subsequent editing.

2/07/2011 8:26:46 a.m.

Cat wrote:

when women stand up for themselves and send the men home to look after the kids, pigs will fly

29/06/2011 7:23:21 p.m.

Lyn wrote:

Why stay or leave? Retrain the dog not to bark and wine.take her of the chain and build a safe run for her and give her somethings to play with.

29/06/2011 6:04:51 p.m.

Allan wrote:

I'd heard about this interview and believed that he'd made a prat of himself. However, having just sat through it and replayed the last bit several times, he was totally ambushed. She asked the same question over and over. He qualified that he believed in equal pay for equal productivity. Sure he showed his frustrations but she'd been out to get him from the start. I've changed my opinion totally and although I think he was unwise with his initial comments, a public lynching like this is appalling. If he's forced to resign or is sacked over this, it will be a totally travesty. She deserves the sacking - totally unprofessional conduct on her part.

29/06/2011 1:59:25 p.m.

Kellie Tremayne wrote:

This guy has got to go - what a bully! When he thinks the camera is off he STANDS OVER Mihi Forbes! He is a rude, arrogant chauvanist! I would LOVE to go toe to toe with this guy!