UPS Gay Suit Settled

Last August, I reported about discrimination agains gay couples by UPS. The case has been settled.

At the time, UPS had a "trailing spouse" policy, that covered the relocation expenses of an employee's spouse when an employee relocated. This did not apply to gay couples since, as the company stated, the couple was not legally married.

In August 2003, Lambda Legal filed a lawsuit against UPS on behalf of the couple. Just hours after the lawsuit was filed last year, UPS released a statement saying it has changed its policy to include domestic partners and that Kline's transfer application had been approved. That policy though was never made available to its employees, and Kline and Sories were forced to continue living 2,000 miles apart.

UPS agreed to provide the same job relocation benefits to employees in domestic partnerships as it does to its married employees.

(San Francisco, California) A gay couple who were forced to live apart for nine months today settled their suit against United Parcel Service. Daniel Kline, who worked for UPS for more than two decades, and his partner of 27 years, Frank Sories accused the company of discriminating against its lesbian and gay employees by not including them in a corporate policy that lets married employees relocate to another city to avoid having their families broken apart when their loved ones have job transfers. (story)