Court Rules El Al Must Grant Gay Partners Spousal Benefits

Israel’s national airline, El Al, must grant free tickets to homosexual partners of its flight attendants just as it would for legal spouses, according to a court ruling issued this week.

The court ruling is being carefully studied in Israel because it might set a wider precedent for benefits granted to the “permanent partners” of employees.

A specified number of free or discounted tickets are routinely issued to airline employees and their spouses under employment benefit packages offered by the companies.

The court dispute arose out of an El Al company rule stipulating that if an employee signs a declaration that he or she has a binding relationship with a “common law” wife or husband, then that partner should be recognized as a spouse eligible for the benefit of free tickets.

The company also included permanent partners that could not be married to the employee because the couple could not legally marry. In Israel, such a situation could result if one of them could not obtain a religious get, or divorce, from a previous spouse, or if the male was a Kohen and the woman a divorcee.

The Tel Aviv District Labor Court ruled that the company could not discriminate between these situations, where heterosexual partners could not marry in Israel’s religious courts because of various technicalities, and unmarried partners who could not marry because they are of the same sex.

So far, only one flight attendant has filed suit against El Al, after his request for a free ticket for his gay partner was rejected.

If others wish to receive the same benefits, they will have to sign a declaration asserting they have a “binding relationship” with the given partner, the court ruled.

Among the consequences of the ruling that the El Al management is now studying are fears that its religious passengers might be offended by a company policy granting free tickets to gay partners of flight attendants.