Domestic Partners: New Law Expands Workplace Rights

Gov. Davis has signed into law a sweeping measure that expands domestic partner rights on insurance, sick leave and other issues. The new law takes effect Jan. 1, 2002.

Expanded Workplace Rights For Domestic Partners

These are the measure’s key provisions that will affect employers:

1. Domestic partner definition. Domestic partners will include opposite-sex couples if at least one person is over age 62 and meets eligibility criteria under the Social Security Act. Previously, both individuals in an opposite-sex relationship had to be over 62 to register as domestic partners.

    

2. Sick leave. Under existing law, all employers must permit employees to use up to half of their accrued sick leave to care for an ill family member, which includes a child, spouse or parent. According to the new legislation, employees can use sick leave to care for a domestic partner or the child of a domestic partner. If you offer sick leave, be sure to update your sick leave policy to reflect these changes.

    

3. Health benefits. The new law contains these provisions concerning health benefits for domestic partners:

    

   • Dependent benefits. Group health care plans and disability plans that provide hospital, medical or surgical benefits must offer coverage to small employers (with up to 50 employees) for their employees’ domestic partners under the same conditions that coverage is offered to dependents of employees. When a small employer has purchased coverage for domestic partners, the plan must enroll a domestic partner under the same conditions used for dependents. The health plan may require a copy of a valid domestic partnership declaration. Note that the law doesn’t require an employer to offer domestic partner coverage.

      

   • Continuation benefits for survivors. Under existing rules, public employers may offer health care coverage to employees’ domestic partners but they aren’t eligible for continued health coverage if the employee dies. The new measure provides that domestic partners and their children who are en- rolled in a health benefits plan at the time of the employee’s death are eligible for continued coverage. This is true only if the domestic partner receives a retirement allowance as the surviving beneficiary of the deceased employee. Note that the surviving domestic partner of a deceased employee cannot enroll additional family members in the health plan.

      

   • Health coverage taxation. Domestic partners are now considered dependents for purposes of exempting from taxable income the cost of dependent health coverage under an employer-provided group health plan.

    

4. Unemployment compensation. Under existing law, employees who quit voluntarily cannot receive un- employment benefits unless they leave for good cause. Examples of good cause include discrimination or harassment, undue risk of industrial injury or illness, or a spouse’s relocation too far away for the employee to commute. The new law expands the good cause definition to cover an employee who quits to accompany a domestic partner who is relocating too far away for the employee to commute.

Join us this fall in San Francisco for the California Employment Law Update conference, a 3-day event that will teach you everything you need to know about new laws and regulations, and your compliance obligations, for the year ahead—it’s one-stop shopping at its best.

Note that if you follow certain simple procedures, the benefits paid in such a relocation case—whether for a spouse or domestic partner—won’t be charged against your unemployment insurance account. Within 10 days of receiving notice that an employee has filed for unemployment (or within 15 days of receiving such notice if you weren’t the most recent employer), you must submit facts to the Employment Development Department indicating that the employee left to accompany their domestic partner (or spouse). You must do so even if the person has already told the EDD that this was why they resigned.