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More and more Australian corporations are leading the way in acknowledging gay marriage rights. Adam Bub reports.
The Rudd government’s new domestic partner benefits may spell domestic bliss for many same-sex couples, but for lobby group Australian Marriage Equality (AME), marriage is the main event.
Over recent months, AME have invited Australian corporations to confirm that they treat same-sex couples to the same company benefits as married heterosexual couples.
“If you’re an employer who doesn’t want to deal with the issue, we’re putting you on the spot – you have to make a decision,” says Peter Furness, National Convenor of Australian Marriage Equality.
Currently, ten companies have signed on, including the Commonwealth Bank, IBM, Seek, Telstra and Qantas.
Qantas is particularly renowned for being a gay-friendly company, not least because of the gay flight attendant stereotype, but also because it is a member of the International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association (IGLTA).
“In the provision of all employment-related benefits over which Qantas has control, same-sex couples are treated equally … [to] employees and their spouses of the opposite sex,” Kevin Brown, Executive General Manager People for Qantas, tells SX.
Qantas’ recognition of its employees’ same-sex marriage rights stems from a policy review in 2006 following questions raised by a Qantas employee. In relation to that case, former Chief Justice of the Family Court Alastair Nicholson advised that there was no clause preventing businesses from granting marriage rights to its employees.
“There is nothing to stop a private employer permitting your husband to be described as your spouse on its documentation and I can see no legal impediment to it doing so,” he wrote.
A current Qantas employee, who asked to remain anonymous, confirms that Qantas had only discriminated against him and his partner in relation to staff travel benefits, until the policy review.
“It’s a moral difference for us,” he tells SX. “If this company has no problem putting on my staff records that my partner is my husband, even though he is of the same sex, and other companies don’t have such a problem, then why can’t the government do that?”
Similarly, last year Telstra amended 171 policies to include all spousal relationships in the catch-all category of ‘partners’. All 45,000 employees were sent a memo about the policy change with only one complaint.
“We define ‘partner’ under all our policies to include two people living together as a couple on a genuine domestic basis, irrespective of gender – a definition endorsed by Australia’s Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission,” says Executive Director of Human Resources Stephen Barrow, who is himself in a UK civil union with his husband, Lawrence.
The Diversity Council of Australia (DCA), a non-government advisory organisation that helps businesses implement anti-discrimination strategies, gives AME’s initiative the tick of approval.
“DCA would encourage every top 100 company in Australia to follow suit,” says CEO Nareen Young. “Smart businesses understand that their GLBT customers and clients want to see organisations providing equal access to the same rights as everyone else.”
The move by these Australian corporations mirrors certain companies in the US, where the push for domestic partner benefits precedes the push for marriage rights. Starbucks is ranked number seven on CNN’s ‘100 Best Companies to Work For 2008’ list, while sits Google at number one. And both provide domestic partner benefits.
Starbucks Australia has not yet joined AME’s initiative, but outlines a similar policy to Telstra. Said the company’s media representative, Jen McDougal: “In Australia, all partners are entitled to the same benefits package”.
Other American corporations, too, have actively shown support for civil union and marriage rights.
Take Nike, for example. In 2005, the sportswear brand declared support for civil union legislation in the US state of Oregon. Though the Bill failed to get approval, domestic partnership laws were passed two years later.
And earlier this year, a New York court set the precedent for New York employers to recognise same-sex marriages performed outside of the state. It ruled that a New York employer’s denial of healthcare benefits to a gay spouse would be unlawful.
Corporations can benefit tremendously from adopting such positions. Public credibility, staff loyalty, increased productivity and a more peaceful workplace are just some of the potential outcomes of providing gay marriage recognition.
Leading US professor Kirk Snyder, author of groundbreaking book The G Quotient, wrote that large American corporations’ recognition of domestic partner benefits marks a “new era of gay activism,” and that inroads to equality can be achieved as effectively through employers as they would through policy makers.
“Thanks in large part to corporate America, the road to same-sex marriage, and even gay adoption may already be paved,” said Snyder. “Not through Washington, but through Wall Street.”
While Australian law is pushing ahead by introducing domestic partner benefits, the stage has been set for ‘Corporate Australia’ to positively influence change for the future.
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