In a Facebook post on Wednesday night, Bunny Cadag shared how she was hired for a job working with Philippine fast food giant Jollibee through an outsourcing company, but was told she would not be allowed to work in the office because she identifies as a transgender woman.
The post has almost 8,000 likes and 4,000 shares as of posting time.
According to Cadag, she was assigned by Human Capitol Development (HCD) to work as a transcriber for three sessions of evaluation interviews in Jollibee’s corporate office. She accomplished her tasks and was paid for the first session but a day before the second one, she received a call from a HCD representative with a message from Jollibee.
According to Cadag’s post, the representative told her that Jollibee is not ready for LGBT culture, that they are not open to the idea of having a transgender inside one of their office rooms, and that JFC is still willing to work with her by providing recordings of the sessions.
Cadag declined the offer to continue the work.
She has reached out to the HDC representative, Jollibee, and the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines, but according to her post, not much has been done.
Cadag ended her post by asking Jollibee for a formal explanation of what happened.
On the same day, Jollibee apologized to Cadag through an official statement posted on its Facebook page.
“Jollibee Foods Incorporated sincerely apologizes to Bunny Cadag who experienced an unfortunate incident as relayed in Bunny’s Facebook post,” the company said. “We also apologize to everyone who was offended by this.”
Cadag, however, was not completely satisfied.
“Personally, I want a formal explanation from the client — Jollibee — whether they’re really not ready to work with people like me. And an explanation from HCD about whether their policies protect other outsourced personnel like me from being compromised by clients with discriminatory policies,” Cadag said in Filipino.
“I want them to prove this by having a company policy on anti-discrimination that will prohibit any form of discrimination in all levels of employment,” she continued.
Cadag told ABS-CBN News that she hopes the story would not only heighten awareness on LGBT issues but encourage others to stand up for their rights.
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