On Sept. 1, the Human Rights campaign announced that several companies offered a pet insurance policy for employees, but not actual domestic-partner health insurance for the human partners of their employees.
The next day, Home depot did a quick reversal, announcing it will offer domestic-partner health insurance.
'The Home Depot is finally putting its people first,' said HRC President Cheryl Jacques, after learning that Home Depot put out a memo at close of business Wednesday announcing the change.
The Human Rights Campaign's WorkNet project revealed Wednesday that Home Depot, based in Atlanta, was one of four Fortune 500 companies that offered pet insurance but not DP health insurance despite published policies prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientationand one covering gender identity. The others are: Sprint, based in Overland, Kan.; Waste Management of Houston; and Ecolab of St. Paul, Minn.
'We now call on Sprint, Ecolab and Waste Management to recognize that good business is putting an employee's partner above the family pet,' Jacques added..
Home Depot had been slated to earn a failing grade on HRC WorkNet's Corporate Equality Index, to be released later this month. The addition of partner health insurance benefits will raise its score to 71
percentwhich is also Sprint's tentative score. Waste Management is slated to receive 43 percent; Ecolab will not be scored because the company has never replied to the HRC questionnaire. The index measures how equitably companies treat their gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender .
employees, consumers and investors..
'The only thing keeping Home Depot from a perfect score is its lack of a non-discrimination policy covering gender identity,' said HRC Education Director Kim I. Mills, who oversees WorkNet. 'We will continue to work with the company to ensure all its employees get equal treatment.'.