Am I being descriminated by HR?

[CRM001]

Hi all,
I just want to know if it is ok for my employer to request a copy of my marriage lisence. They claim, since my wife is a foreigner, that the Insurance Company will request that to verify I am married.
Is it ok for my employer to even questioned if I am legally married or not?
Thanks
CRM

 

[Beth3]

If the ONLY time they question whether an employee is legally married is if the employee has a foreign-born spouse, then yes, they're discriminating based on national origin. As you haven't suffered any tangible damages, you wouldn't have much of a claim though.

Your HR group would be a lot smarter to let the insurance carrier handle any request for documentation like this, rather than stick themselves in the middle of it.

I don't really get their problem though. I've had ee's with foreign born spouses and as far as I know, the insurance carrier has never required any special documentation for the employee to prove they're a legal dependent.

Are you recently married by any chance? I'm wondering whether the issue isn't that she's foreign born but rather the HR person wants to make certain you're complying with Plan/125B requirements that adding legal dependents must be done within 30 days of the qualifying event (in this case, the date of your marriage.)

 

[cbg]

Another possibility; does your wife share your last name? You didn't mention what country your wife is from, but I know from experience that in some other cultures, a husband and wife don't always have the same last name, and some insurance carriers automatically request proof of dependancy (marriage or birth certificate) whenever the last names don't match. If this is the reason, they would be doing the same thing if a wife decided to keep her maiden name or a stepchild had their bio-father's name. In that case, it would also not be because of her birth country, and thus not illegal discrimination.