MontclairTimes.com – Erica Zarra
Montclair will extend pension and health benefits to same-sex domestic partners of municipal employees.
The Township Council directed Township Manager Joseph Hartnett during its Tuesday night meeting to include this addition in the collective bargaining process with Montclair?s nine labor unions.
?I think everybody supports this, including myself,? Hartnett said, adding that the process is expected to take from two to three months. ?In addition to an issue of social justice for our citizens, this is also an employee relations issue. From both standpoints, everybody is supportive.?
More than 100 county, municipal and educational entities in New Jersey have adopted either pension provisions or state health benefits for domestic partners.
?It?s long overdue, and frankly, I?m surprised we did not have this already,? Mayor Ed Remsen said. ?We moved quickly. It had to be done.?
In February, Essex County granted these benefits, and the Bloomfield Township Council recently did the same. The Montclair School District extended domestic-partner benefits in January to current and retired employees.