ATLANTA – State Representative Beth Moore (D-Peachtree Corners) recently introduced House Bill 1375, legislation which seeks to prevent insurance companies from denying workers’ compensation to surviving spouses based on the surviving spouse’s personal activities and/or gender.
“The code as-is allows attorneys and private investigators to intrude into the personal sex lives of widows and widowers in order to deny them the insurance benefits rightfully owed to them,” said Rep. Moore. “Losing a spouse at work is tragic enough, but then to allow strangers to interrogate a mourning spouse about his or her sex life in the aftermath of such a devastating loss is absolutely unacceptable. The current law codifies an outdated notion of relationships and social norms around sex and dating, and this law would change that.”
House Bill 1375 would eliminate “cohabitation in a meretricious relationship” as a basis for insurance companies to deny or terminate workers’ compensation benefits to a surviving spouse following the death of a loved one due to a workplace incident.
Currently, the Georgia code states that the surviving spouse’s benefits will stop upon his or her remarriage or upon cohabitation in a meretricious relationship. Georgia’s law currently defines this relationship as people of the opposite sex living together continuously and openly in a relationship similar or akin to marriage, which includes either sexual intercourse or the sharing of living expenses. Rep. Moore believes remarriage is a bright-line test to determine when benefits should end, and as such, HB 1375 would retain the “remarriage” portion of the law and rescind the “meretricious relationship” portion.
This bill would also address the fact that the current laws regarding the termination of workers’ compensation benefits for surviving spouses only applies to opposite sex couples.
“This archaic language in our current workers’ compensation laws manages to be simultaneously homophobic and discriminatory against straight people,” added Rep. Moore. “The current law arguably violates the 14th Amendment of the Constitution guaranteeing equal protection under the law. It’s time to correct these vestiges of a bygone era and bring workers’ comp laws into the 21st century.”
This legislation is cosponsored by State Representatives Matthew Wilson (D-Brookhaven), Mary Margaret Oliver (D-Decatur), Dar’shun Kendrick (D-Lithonia), David Dreyer (D-Atlanta) and William Boddie (D-East Point).
For more information on HB 1375, please click here.
Representative Beth Moore serves Georgia’s House District 95, which includes the cities of Peachtree Corners, Berkeley Lake, Norcross, Duluth and Johns Creek across Gwinnett and Fulton Counties. She was first elected to the House Representatives in 2018 and serves on the Energy Utilities & Telecommunications, Banks & Banking, Science & Technology and Information & Audits committees.
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