Lucky Plaza-staple and internationally-renowned fast food chain Jollibee found itself in hot water earlier this month, when a Facebook post by a former temporary worker went viral.
In it, the employee shared how she had been discriminated upon by the Philippines-based Jollibee Foods Corporation (JFC) for being transgender. After a series of ignored attempts to file formal complaints, she decided to take to social media for accountability.
Bunny Cadag, a transgender woman, had been taken on as a transcriber by the JFC main office in Metro Manila, to help work on a three-day evaluation interview process conducted by the company’s Human Capital Development department. Sometime between the first and second sessions, however, she received a shocking phone call.
According to Cadag, a HR contact person named Mr. Louie Angsico reached out to her, asking for an apology. He didn’t know how to break the news to her. The Jollibee management had decided not to allow her to continue on as a transcriber for their company, citing that JFC wasn’t ready to support LGBT culture and employees like her. Cadag said the management wasn’t welcoming to the idea of having a transgender employee in their offices – expressing that they subscribed to Catholic beliefs.
“To be honest, I didn’t know what I was supposed to feel,” Cadag wrote. “I asked Mr. Angsico where exactly that discrimination came from… One thing was for sure, I just wanted to ask that person: Why?”
The online fallout was immediate, with netizens calling for justice against Jollibee and clamoring for local government to pass much needed anti-discrimination legislation. Currently, no law is in place to protect workers from sexual or gender-based discrimination in the workplace.
A day after Cadag’s post went viral, Jollibee issued an official statement clarifying certain details of the story. According to JFC, the incident was brought about by an unnamed employee and a representative from one of their consultants – neither of which was authorized to speak on behalf of the company. “Both of them have realized their mistake and have sincerely apologised for this,” they said.
“We have recognized the need to heighten awareness and greater understanding of our policies among our employees,” they said. “Plans are already underway to conduct a SOGIE (Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Gender Expression” training to all employees across the JFC organization.”
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