Posted on 09/02/2004 4:50:37 PM PDT by Cracker72
Pets, not partners, favored, group says
By SUZANNE KING The Kansas City Star
Sprint Corp. was one of four Fortune 500 companies under fire Wednesday for offering health insurance for employees' pets but not domestic partners.
Human Rights Campaign, a gay-rights group in Washington, issued a news release condemning Sprint, Home Depot, Waste Management and Ecolab for their policies.
“It was immediately evident to us that it was out of kilter that a company would do this,” said Kim Mills, the group's education director.
Sprint has a relationship with a pet insurance company that allows employees to buy that insurance at a discount, said Jennifer Bosshardt, a Sprint spokeswoman. But the company does not pay for pet insurance.
Sprint is undertaking its annual review of employee benefits and will consider whether to begin offering benefits to domestic partners and other people supported by employees, such as grandchildren, Bosshardt said.
“Sprint completely agrees that our employees should have the best benefits possible, and we are making sure there is broad access to people who are supported by our employees,” she said.
Mills said the companies' policies involving pet insurance were uncovered through the group's efforts to improve the workplace conditions of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees.
The group later this month will release its annual Corporate Equality Index, which looks at issues such as whether companies have nondiscriminatory policies, offer benefits to domestic partners and provide support groups to gay employees.
Sprint will receive a grade of 71 percent in the index, the third the Human Rights Campaign has issued.
Mills said Sprint's score had jumped from 29 percent in the two previous studies.
She did not have the information Wednesday afternoon about why Sprint's score had improved so significantly.
The index is based on responses to a survey sent to more than 700 large public and private companies. Mills said more than 300 companies responded to the survey this year.
The other companies criticized in Wednesday's news release will fare worse than Sprint in the study.
Home Depot, based in Atlanta, will score 57 percent; Waste Management, based in Houston, will score 43 percent; and Ecolab, based in St. Paul, Minn., will not be scored, because the company did not return the survey.
Same-sex domestic partner benefits are becoming more common in the workplace, Mills said.
According to the Society for Human Resource Management's 2004 Benefits Survey of 459 human resource professionals, 27 percent said their companies offer them.
“Forward thinking, progressive, cutting edge companies are providing the benefits,” Mills said.
Poor Sprint, getting the gay shakedown can't be fun.
There's only 4 companies in the top 5 hundred that haven't sold out to homos?
"Dude, where's my country?"
On the other hand, I'm glad I'm a Sprint PCS subscriber. Perhaps I will purchase some of their stock.
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