Same-sex couples’ legal dependents to get equal benefits at Globe, telco says

by ABS-CBN News, 5 March 2020

MANILA – Globe Telecom has started recognizing the qualified dependents of same-sex legal couples in its employee base and will give them the same benefits as the dependents of other workers, the company said on Thursday.

The Ayala-led telco said the policy, which started this year, covers all regular employees who were married to their same-sex partners in countries where the marriage, civil union, civil partnership or registered partnership is legal.

“We hope that by showing concrete examples of how truly diverse and inclusive our company is, our LGBTQ+ employees will be more inspired, motivated to work harder and feel the importance and care we now formally extend to their legal spouses,” said Globe chief human resource officer Renato Jiao.

Globe said this was part of its commitment to the UN Global Compact it signed last year to promote diversity and inclusion, especially in the workplace.

“As dependents, same-sex legal spouses are entitled to the following company initiated benefits such as in-patient and out-patient medical coverage (all employees); dental (executive-level employees); leave credits due to illness in the family that requires hospital confinement (all employees); and bereavement leave,” the company said.

Same-sex legal husbands or wives are also entitled to Group Life and Accidental Death insurance, bereavement assistance and Retirement Death Benefit.