FedEx recently announced that it will offer health insurance benefits to same-sex domestic partners, according to The Commercial Appeal, a Memphis, Tennessee, newspaper. The Memphis-based company plans to begin offering the new insurance benefits beginning January 1, 2012.
In the Appeal article, FedEx spokesperson Sandra Munoz noted that:
- FedEx employees have been asking for this particular benefit;
- the new benefit won’t apply to heterosexual domestic partners;
- the company is waiting until 2012 to begin offering the new benefit because it needs time to rebuild benefits that were cut because of the recession; and
- details regarding the new benefit will be ironed out before the benefit is offered to employees during the company’s health insurance enrollment period in the fall of 2011.
Private companies are free to provide same-sex benefits to their employees, and many employers (especially larger ones) already offer them. According to the Human Rights Campaign, a civil rights organization, most large employers (those with 5,000 or more employees) now offer benefits to same-sex partners and spouses of employees.
Keep up with the latest legal changes affecting employer benefits and trends in employee benefits with the Benefits and Compensation Law Alert and with changes in federal employment laws in the Federal Employment Law Insider.