Alasdair Thompson on female productivity and periods - full interview

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Alasdair Thompson on female productivity and periods - full interview

3News NZ

Alasdair Thompson

Alasdair Thompson

Employers and Manufacturers Association boss Alasdair Thompson has issued an apology to anyone who took offence to his comments about why women are paid less than men.



In a Newstalk ZB interview this morning Mr Thompson said women are paid less than men because they have babies and “once a month they have sick problems”.

Mr Thompson gave 3 News an interview today to explain his comments and issue an apology.

See Rachel Morton’s full story here

Click on the video tab to see the full interview.

3 News

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Comments

30/06/2011 10:05:13 a.m.

Keri Anne wrote:

Interestingly my father is currently on sick leave as my baby sister is sick and my boss (male) was on sick leave a couple of weeks ago as his daughter was sick. Females take more sick leave - year right. Tui billboard please!!

28/06/2011 1:02:34 p.m.

michele mansini wrote:

a fair days pay for a fair days work , bring womens wages up to par with men. it is 2011 not 1911 when employers didn't pay at all if they could get away with it. that started unions and thanks to unions we actually get paid.
paying women less is a disgrace and employers should hang their heads for getting away with it for this long.
equal pay for women is what labour and the unions need to fight for and take it to the election. national and act will fight it for the EMA, who will be horrified.

28/06/2011 3:55:42 a.m.

Dianne wrote:

DO NOT INTERRUPT the MAN

27/06/2011 9:03:48 p.m.

aimee wrote:

Alfred Rosenberg hahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahaha, your post makes me laugh mate.

27/06/2011 4:55:47 p.m.

Sarah wrote:

Oh dear. Some people really shouldn't be allowed near a microphone, or allowed in senior positions for that matter. I'm not going to even bother touching on the period issue as it is so utterly preposterous, but as for women taking leave to take care of sick children etc well maybe we should be dividing that responsibility more evenly between the sexes, then it won't just be our 'problem' will it? I address this also to Alfred Rosenberg, who is further proof that some people shouldn't be allowed near a computer either.

27/06/2011 1:09:08 p.m.

bob wrote:

this is rubbis he is an a egg

26/06/2011 9:22:12 a.m.

Bernmeister wrote:

Poor ol' Al is a real chump, a relic from the past no doubt. However, The Ponsonby Communist John Campbell & his cronies thrive on this sort of old cobblers. Bunch on nancy leftie pinkos. * And Al...it's STATISTICS, not STASTISTICS

26/06/2011 12:40:50 a.m.

Woman wrote:

1) he is sooo full of it!! obviously, his "female (woman) lawyer" (as quoted by him...go back and listen) has given him some great wording for him to read off his little piece of paper for the interview... or was it some female HR advisor..? since HR statistically has more women than men in the field anyway??
(and he really needs to learn to say 'statistically').
2) It is really embarassing that such people lead organisations like the EMA - people who are meant to be training leaders and senior execs to be more understanding and accommodating of staff. i can only wonder what they are training these people to be and think...
3) DUDE, wake up, it's 2011, every man, woman, child and their dog has a hotmail and/or gmail account!!
4) don't you think mr thompson how much irony there is in your own explanation?? your supposedly went to look after the supposedly sick grandchild... why the heck wasn't it you?? maybe she wouldn't have to call in sick then, huh?
5) he also needs to learn what the word productivity means...

25/06/2011 3:49:42 p.m.

Anthony Weiner wrote:

Who is this guy's media trainer? I must have her!

25/06/2011 2:33:12 p.m.

Alfred Rosenberg wrote:

What you people are suggesting is that compliance costs for maternity leave and the like to be shared equally among men, women, with and without children. So the equal pay crowd basically want men in general to take a cut in wages to subsidize the compliance costs of women - who have babies as we all know. Contrary to socialist beliefs, money does not fall from the sky. Those maternity leave wages have to come from somewhere. They will argue 'men take maternity leave too' - This has got to be a tiny minority, who are discriminated themselves as they get less maternity leave than women. Next they focus on the side issue, ignoring the elephant in the room that is maternity leave, and focus on the 'period issue'. They quote statistics from the PSA that women take aprox 8 days to mens 5, in no way contradicting Mr Thompson. Its actually nearly double if you think about it. The PS however, marches to the beat of its own drum and according to their own stats state that the average age of women in the PS is 43 - go figure. The PS does not reflect the private sector. For example - according to their own stats again, over one third of the women employed by PS are in senior management. Stats for men or Europeans are unavailable as they are not considered to be part of the PSA definition of 'diversity' (everybody but white males are a part of the human race and deserve a fair go). And what about women who choose not to have children? They must take a pay cut as insurance they dont change their minds (as they do). The simple solution is for women to start earning the right to be called women. If you have a baby, quit your job, stay in femtrol, and be a real woman until your child goes to school or at least kindy. Dont expect the whole world to go on hold for you and society to break down while you play at being superwoman. Men never asked to become superman and be both mother and father. Werent we just supposed to acknowledge mothers job in the home as a job?