Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 26, No. 38, Ed. 1 Friday, February 5, 2010 Page: 11 of 36
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LEAVE
From Page 1
gone through all this suffering and despair and hope-
lessness."
Walt Sharp, a spokesman for AT&T, confirmed
Wednesday, Feb. 3, that the company enacted a new
policy effective Monday, Feb. 1 granting FMLA-
equivalent leave to same-sex domestic partners, even
if their relationship isn't recognized where they live.
AT &T's refusal to grant EMLA leave to Dickenson
came as a surprise to many, since the company re-
ceived a score of 100 percent last year on the Human
Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index, which
rates companies according to their treatment of
LGBT employees. AT&T was also recently named
one of HRC's "Best Places to Work" for LGBT people.
"AT&T has a really, really long history of being
very proactive in these areas," Sharp said. "I think
this is one of those situations where the question had
never come up before, and it's now come up, and it's
been addressed, and it's been resolved."
Sharp said the policy that took effect Monday cov-
ers only non-union employees. Many AT&T employ-
ees, including Dickenson, are members of unions, and
approval of changes to their collective bargaining
agreements may take a few weeks. Meanwhile, Dick-
enson was given discretionary leave.
Dickenson's attorney, Rob Wiley, said some details
still must be ironed out with the company, such as
whether vacation time Dickenson has taken to care
for Sugg will be reclassified as FMLA leave. But
Wiley said he believes AT&T is committed to ensur-
ing that Dickenson is treated fairly.
"I think it is a victory, absolutely" Wiley said. "It's
amazing how this one blue-collar employee living
righthere in Dallas, Texas, made a change that affects
the eighth-largest company in America."
Wiley also said he thinks this is a "wake-up call"
for LGBT employees to be vigilant about what ben-
efits their companies offer. "I would be very inter-
ested to see what the results would be if people we®
to call up their human resources here in Dallas at
other big national companies and say, 'Can I get
FMLA?" Wiley said. "Ihonestly believe that's it's not
just the eighth-biggest company in America, that it's
a lot of other big companies.... There are a lot of dif-
ferent rights that are out there that straight employees
have, and we ought to have the same rights."
Eric Bloem, deputy director of HRC's workplace
project, said this week he was satisfied with AT&T's
handling of the situation. He noted that the company
was among the first in the Fortune 500 to add sexual
orientation to its nondiscrimination policies many
years ago. AT&T has participated in the Corporate
Equality Index since 2004 and has received a score of
100 percent each year since 2005.
"They responded quickly to the course of events,
and I think they demonstrated what a 100 percent
company should be," Bloem said. "They take these
inquiries and these problems very seriously and are
quick to respond to them.-
Bloem also defended HRC against criticism of the
CFJ, saying that if it weren't for the benchmark the
index has created, Dickenson may never have gotten
a response from the company.
"If that didn't exist, there would be no recourse,"
Bloem said. "There would be no way to hold AT&T
and companies in general accountable* ■
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02.05.10 ■ dallasvoice 11
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Nash, Tammye. Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 26, No. 38, Ed. 1 Friday, February 5, 2010, newspaper, February 5, 2010; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth239102/m1/11/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.