Wal-Mart Reaches $7.5 Million Settlement in Same-Sex Spouse Benefits Complaint
December 02 2016 - 9:48PM
Dow Jones News
By Maria Armental
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. reached a tentative agreement to settle a
class-action complaint that accused the retailer of discriminating
against gay employees and their spouses by denying them health
benefits.
Under the terms of the settlement, filed Friday in Massachusetts
federal court, Wal-Mart would pay $7.5 million to settle the
case.
The agreement, which is subject to court approval, would apply
to current and former Wal-Mart employees who work or worked for
Wal-Mart in the U.S. or Puerto Rico from Jan. 1, 2011, through Dec.
31, 2013, and were legally married to a same-sex spouse during that
period.
An estimated 1,100 workers may be eligible to be compensated,
according to court documents. Wal-Mart employs nearly 1.5 million
associates in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.
Arkansas-based Wal-Mart extended health benefits to domestic
partners of U.S. workers, regardless of sexual orientation,
starting in January 2014.
Until that time, Wal-Mart had only offered benefits to the
domestic partners of employees in states that required the retailer
to do so by law.
The complaint was filed last year in Massachusetts federal court
by Jacqueline A. Cote, an office associate at a Wal-Mart store in
Massachusetts who married Diana Smithson, also a Wal-Mart employee,
in 2004. Ms. Smithson, who left Wal-Mart in 2008 to care for Ms.
Cote's ailing mother, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in
2012.
Wal-Mart denied spousal health benefits to Ms. Smithson, and the
couple spent more than $150,000 to treat Ms. Smithson.
Ms. Cote argued Wal-Mart's old policy had discriminated against
gay workers and their spouses under the federal law that prohibits
employment discrimination based on sex, religion, race and national
origin.
On Friday, Ms. Cote said in a prepared statement: "It's a relief
to bring this chapter of my life to a close."
"Respect for the individual, diversity and inclusion are among
the core values that made Wal-Mart into the company that it is
today," said Sally Welborn, Wal-Mart's senior vice president for
global benefits, in a statement.
Write to Maria Armental at maria.armental@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 02, 2016 21:33 ET (02:33 GMT)
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