UPS Delivers Benefits to Civil Union Partners

by: Juan Melli

Mon Jul 30, 2007 at 03:48:19 PM EDT

UPS (NYSE:UPS) today announced it would offer health care benefits to all civil union partners of hourly employees in New Jersey who are covered under collectively bargained union plans. Management and administrative employees in the state already have such benefits.

"Based on an initial legal review when New Jersey's law was enacted, it did not appear that a 'civil union' and 'marriage' were equivalent," noted Allen Hill, UPS's senior vice president for human resources. "Over the past week, however, we have received clear guidance that at least in New Jersey, the state truly views civil union partners as married. We've heard that loud and clear from state officials and we're happy to make this change."

"We commend UPS for taking this step," said Daryl Herrschaft, director of the Workplace Project at the Washington, D.C.-based Human Rights Campaign. "We've known all along that UPS wanted to do the right thing. It says a lot about this company's character that it never stopped looking for a way to help these New Jersey employees in an uncertain legal environment."

The extension of benefits to civil union partners of hourly employees in New Jersey will affect approximately 8,700 workers, although it's impossible to know how many of those employees have joined in civil unions. About 5,400 non-union UPS workers in New Jersey already are eligible.