'Brain Explosion' Reveals Petrified Grey Matter

"Brain explosion" reveals petrified grey matter

I'm pleased Employers and Manufacturers Association Chief Executive Alasdair Thompson spoke from his heart, rather than his public relations notes, on women in the workplace because his attitudes are common among employers and it's better they are out in the daylight than festering away as an invisible barrier to social progress.

If you haven't caught up with it yet Thompson's "brain explosion" (expression courtesy of Labour Minister Kate Wilkinson) occurred in a radio discussion on Newstalk ZB yesterday when he explained the gender pay gap by claiming women were less productive "because once a month they have sick problems. Not all women, but some do, they have children they have to take time off to go home and take leave. I don't like saying these things because it sounds like I'm sexist, but it's a fact of life."

On the one hand Thompson says he supports equal pay for women but in the next breath excuses the gender pay gap (reported at 12%) with no evidence beyond anecdote, assumption and prejudice. Even if women do take more time off work to look after sick kids when they are at work they are as productive as anyone else - or does Thompson believe otherwise?

Women are everywhere in the workforce compared to a generation back and ironically one of the drivers to get them there was the 1991 Employment Contracts Act. This law, so vigorously supported by employers, led to real wages dropping over the following decade by typically 25%. The destructive impact of this legislation is now obvious in the huge and growing wage gap with Australia where unions prevented such laws becoming established.

To make up for the income difference many more women entered the paid workforce and most families now rely on two, and sometimes more, incomes to maintain a reasonable standard of living. In Thompson's world it would have been better for women to continue to do unpaid work at home than bring their humanity to the workforce.

What sparked this particular debate which led to Thompson's brain explosion was Green MP Catherine Delahunty's private members bill which would require employers to measure the wage gap in their workplace and provide this information to staff. Not an onerous task but one which most employers will resist. In public they support pay equity while in private the pervasive, lazy misogyny of most prevents progress.

It's small wonder that in recent years progress on closing the pay gap between men and women has stalled and in fact the gap has widened in more recent times. This is not seen as a problem by the Employers and Manufacturers Association. They have always made snide remarks about any attempts to expose and reduce the gender pay gap.

In Thompson 's world people are measured by their productivity, not their humanity. In fact being part of a human community with real people doing real jobs is a handicap for the employers Thompson represents.

In his world women lose both ways. They are expected to do unpaid work to maintain households at home while receiving lower pay than men when they enter the paid workforce.

It's good to have all this out in the open because it will help spur public debate and give the issue much higher profile than employers would like.

Thanks Alastair.

© Scoop Media