|
« AAUP Homepage
|
Arbitrator's Ruling Benefits Partners in Connecticut
By Hans P. Johnson
In early March, the EIGHT thousand faculty members at public colleges and universities in Connecticut gained health benefits for their same-sex domestic partners and for children in households jointly headed by such partners. The new protections came about after a state arbitrator ruled in late January that the state could not justify barring the benefits. Prior to the ruling, which affects all state employees, three private institutions in the state—Trinity College and Wesleyan and Yale Universities—already offered such benefits.
According to Steve Greatorex, business manager of the Connecticut State University chapter of the AAUP, state faculty members successfully contended that the issue of domestic partnership protection "is not a gay-rights issue, but an issue of addressing the needs of families."
"The passage of this award," continues Greatorex, "will put Connecticut, as an employer, in conformity with many of the state’s private companies that already offer health and pension benefits to partners of gay and lesbian employees." Aetna and Hartford insurance companies and Xerox Corporation are among the companies that provide benefits to their employees’ same-sex partners.
Cost estimates for implementing the ruling closely mirror costs at campuses that have extended such coverage, where the price tag is around one-half of 1 percent of the overall annual cost of insuring state employees, or about $1.5 million per year.
The AAUP has closely followed the status of domestic partner benefits on the nation’s campuses. For details, see "Domestic Partnership Benefits on Campus: A Litigation Update," by AAUP counsel Donna Euben.
Readers with questions about such benefits can contact Jack Nightingale in the AAUP’s Washington office. He is staff to the Association’s Ad Hoc Committee on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Faculty Concerns.
|