Fate of EMA chief Alasdair Thompson unclear

IAIN MCGREGOR/Waikato Times

ALASDAIR THOMPSON: Apologised twice last week, but his attempts at contrition failed to quell the uproar.

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The Employers' & Manufacturers Association says it needs time to decide the fate of its CEO Alasdair Thompson.

The EMA has been hit by angry feedback from its membership and others over Thompson's comments during a radio interview on Thursday morning suggesting women take more sick leave because of their monthly periods.

This morning it cancelled an emergency board meeting convened to discuss the situation and Thompson's future.

"These sorts of decisions that are momentous, are not the sorts of decisions to be rushed. The board need to deliberate and not be pushed in to making a decision by media or witch-hunts," said EMA's communications manager Gilbert Peterson.

Although today's board meeting was called off, members were in communication with each other over the matter, he said.

An announcement was expected to be made in the next few days, said Peterson.

Thompson could not be contacted for comment and he was not expected at work today.

Calls for the CEO to quit have grown during the weekend, in spite of him twice apologising for his remarks.

At one point his detractors mounted a tampon-throwing protest outside the EMA's offices in Khyber Pass Rd, Auckland.

Nelson-based Labour list MP Maryan Street has confirmed knowledge of an overseas confrontation between Thompson and unionist Helen Kelly in 2009 - but says Thompson doesn't need any help to talk himself out of a job.

"He's reaping his own whirlwind," Street told the Nelson Mail today.

Thompson was being interviewed alongside Kelly, the Council of Trade Unions president, on Newstalk ZB on Thursday when he made the productivity comments.

The Herald on Sunday reported that Thompson had boasted that he had asked Prime Minister John Key about a sexual relationship with Kelly.

An un-named influential businesswoman, who witnessed the confrontation, is reportedly making a formal complaint to the board of the EMA, which was to gather today but then cancelled its meeting.

Kelly has also confirmed the incident, which came in the course of a high-level trade meeting at the US-NZ Partnership Forum in the US in 2009.

Late last night, the Prime Minister's office dismissed the allegations as "totally ridiculous".

The source said the comments were made without any basis other than Helen Kelly and John Key's "good working relationship".

Street said today she was at the same table as Kelly and the businesswoman.

She didn't overhear the initial comments but the report was accurate as the conversation had been relayed to her at the time, she said. She did overhear the shouted remarks as Kelly walked away, and recalled that Kelly "turned round and abused him".

"I clearly don't need to comment further on this because Mr Thompson is successfully destroying himself," Street said.

"More broadly, business in New Zealand needs modern, innovative, imaginative leaders, and Alasdair Thompson is none of those things.

"It's time he went - but he's doing it himself, without any assistance from me."

Street would respect the businesswoman's anonymity but she was a well-known figure. She understood the woman's complaint was being laid yesterday.

- BusinessDay.co.nz, with Nelson Mail