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Civil Partnership Act 2004: What does it mean for employers?

As of 5 December 2005 the Civil Partnerships Act came into force. This allows two non-related, unmarried adults of the same sex to register a civil partnership which has many of the same rights and responsibilities as marriage.

Employers need to ensure that from now on whatever benefits they provide to married employees and their spouses must now also be provided to employees who are civil partners and to their civil partners. There are no legal requirements to offer such benefits to same or opposite sex couples who are not married or registered however if it is your custom and practice to offer benefits to partners in general, then you must extend the same benefits to non-registered same sex couples.

Don’t forget to double check and update your company’s forms/handbooks/policies/guidance notes etc to ensure that wherever the terms marriage and/or spouse are used civil partnerships and/or civil partner are also included.

Keep your staff informed of the changes and of the procedures for claiming any benefits that may now be due to them.

Reiterate to all staff that discrimination on the grounds of perceived or actual sexual orientation is unlawful.

Maintain the confidentiality of your employees – if they prefer not to reveal their sexual orientation they have the right to do so. Think about the terminology you use; you don’t have to ask staff to declare whether they are married or in a civil partnership since the benefits available to them is generally now the same, and to declare a civil partnership declares a person’s sexuality (and they may prefer non-disclosure of that). However, as part of your equal opportunities monitoring procedures you may wish to record that separate data.

Article supplied by Bravanark, advisers in HR, Management, Health and safety, and accessibility issues. 

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