Yesterday, the UK Supreme Court ruled that employers must give same-sex couples the same rights to a spouse's pension as straight couples. The landmark decision follows the case of 66-year old British retiree John Walker, who launched a five-year legal battle against former employer Innospec after being told that if he died, his husband would receive a pension of only a few hundred pounds a year. If Walker had been married to a woman however, she would receive £45,000 (about $58,000) annually for life.
Walker had worked at the multinational chemicals company for more than 20 years and had made mandatory pension scheme contributions like the rest of the company's employees.
After retiring in 2003, Walker and his partner entered a civil partnership in 2006 which they later registered as a marriage. When Walker went to the pensions department to inform them of the change to his paperwork, he was told his partner wouldn't be entitled to the same financial protections as a heterosexual spouse.
Emma Norton, a lawyer with human rights organization Liberty who took on Walker's case, said: "We are delighted the Supreme Court recognized this pernicious little provision for what it was discrimination against gay people, pure and simple."
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