In a welcome move, Tata Steel, one of the biggest steel companies in the world has revised their HR policy to allow LGBTQ+ employees to declare their partners in order to avail all HR benefits accepted under the law.
In a statement Tata Steel said:
With its vision to provide equal opportunity to the employees, it has been an endeavour of the company to create an enabling workforce for all diverse groups, respecting and embracing the differences in the individuals.
Under the new policy, Tata Steel employees will be able to avail a host of benefits, including health check-up, medical facilities, adoption leave, newborn parent and child care leave, and inclusion in employee assistance programme (EAP), for themselves and their partners.
Employees will also get financial assistance for gender reassignment surgery and 30 days special leave for the same. New employees can also avail the Tata Executive Holiday Plan, honeymoon package and domestic travel coverage.
With the new policy in place, employees will be equally eligible for participating in any event like an official gathering or an offshore corporate event, which earlier only allowed spouses of the opposite gender to attend. Suresh Dutt Tripathi, Vice President, Human Resource Management, Tata Steel said,
Research shows that people are more engaged with and committed to an organization that has policies protecting LGBTQ+ employees. In fact, enacting LGBTQ+ inclusive policies have been shown to decrease the instances of LGBTQ+ discrimination at work.
People on Twitter also welcomed this move with positive comments.
A small step forward in the right direction will go a long way. What do you think about the new policy?