“Coles is proud to announce that team members undergoing gender affirmation will now be entitled to up to 10 days’ paid gender affirmation leave,” said the company.
They’ve just become official sponsors of the Pride Cup and with that have announced that transgender and gender diverse employees will be granted paid leave whilst transitioning.
Coles Chief Legal and Safety Officer and chair of the Coles Pride Steering Committee David Brewster detailed that inclusion is a major part of their ethos.
“We know that we have at least 900 team members who identify as transgender or gender diverse. We need to have proper policy and education in this area so there is clear guidance around taking leave for this important transition in their life,” he said.
Coles has approximately 124,000 employees nationwide.
According to TransHub, gender affirmation generally refers to the transition of one sex to another.
“For trans young people, gender affirmation means being able to socially affirm their gender (with name, pronouns, and expression), medical intervention for pre-pubertal trans young people does not occur in Australia, ever.”
“While transition is used both linearly and non-linearly by trans people, our use of affirmation is intentional – many people, trans and cis, observe the trans experience through a lens of medical intervention.”
The supermarket giant has Pride committees in every state and say their latest partnership with Pride Cup is a great way to promote inclusivity within the sporting world.
“Our partnership with Pride Cup Australia will help ensure that LGBTQI+ athletes at all levels can play sport in a safe place in all communities around Australia. Our goal is for the program to reach regional and rural areas as well as in metropolitan locations.”
Pride Cup Australia CEO James Lolicato commented that he was “delighted that Coles is supporting our organisation” citing that he himself had “homophobic comments” thrown at him when he was growing up on the sporting field.
The partnership will be brought to over 750 clubs throughout Australia by 2025.
