Wal-Mart Reaches $7.5 Million Settlement in Same-Sex Spouse Benefits Complaint

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 [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 02, 2016 21:33 ET (02:33 GMT)

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