Dallas County Commissioners at March 24 meeting
Dallas County Commissioners voted roday (Tuesday, March 24) to expand family medical leave to benefit LGBT and single employees.
The so-called “plus-one” system allows employees to name someone as the person the employee would care for, even if that person is not legally related.
Under the federal law, an employee may take unpaid leave to care for a child, spouse or parent. That excluded same-sex spouses. The county commission was concerned it also excluded a single person who may need to care for a roommate or other person important to the employee.
Since proposing the county benefit, the federal government expanded the definition of spouse in the Family Medical Leave Act to include legally married same-sex couples. Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton then sued the federal government to stop implementation in Texas.