Utility to offer benefits to partners: Progress Energy extends coverage

The policy shift comes after three years of internal review and at a time when many of this area's large employers and more than half the nation's Fortune 500 companies offer "domestic partner" benefits.

The Raleigh electric utility will treat same-sex couples and unmarried heterosexual couples as spouses for the purposes of health-care coverage.

Though it won't distinguish between gay and straight couples, the change was requested by a lesbian employee and represents a victory for the gay rights movement. Progress Energy carries great economic and political clout in the region and did not adopt a gay-friendly stance lightly

Company executives researched benefits policies at other large corporations and realized that the national trend was moving in favor of domestic partner benefits, said Don Carll, Progress Energy's compensation and benefits specialist. Adopting such a policy would make the company more competitive in hiring and retention, he said.

The ultimate decision on health-care benefits issues rests with Chief Executive Bob McGehee.

"It was made to conform with the company's code of ethics and culture statement," Carll said. "This comes out of our company's efforts towards diversity and inclusion."

But Steve Noble, chairman of Raleigh-based Called2Action, a conservative Christian organization, said the corporation's move would anger some consumers, employees and retirees who own the company's stock.

"It's a symptom of the moral collapse of the country," Noble said. "Progress Energy is making a value statement that unmarried couples - be they same-sex or opposite sex - hold the same position in their eyes as married couples."

At least 99 North Carolina private employers offer domestic partner benefits, according to Human Rights Campaign, a gay-rights group in Washington. Among them: Duke Energy in Charlotte, Food Lion in Salisbury, SAS Institute in Cary, Duke University in Durham and The Pantry in Sanford, the group reports.

Progress Energy notified its 11,000 employees in the Carolinas and Florida of the change in an internal e-mail. The company also notified about 4,000 retirees by mail to let them know they'll be eligible for domestic partner benefits during the October enrollment period.

The new benefits don't apply to a small number of employees who work for Progress Energy subsidiaries out of state. Those workers have separate benefits plans.

Progress Energy expects about 150 to 225 workers to sign up. It will cost the company about $3,000 a year for each domestic partner who receives coverage starting Jan. 1.

Dawn Prince-Cohee said she first approached Progress Energy's human resources department in 2003 about adding the benefit. Prince- Cohee, who is a lesbian, later made presentations to diversity committees and to company executives.

Some raised questions about potential abuse of such a benefit by unmarried employees. Others asked why the benefit should be extended to unmarried heterosexuals who had the option to wed but elected not to.

"The biggest concern was employee reaction," Prince-Cohee said. "The utility industry is conservative traditionally."

Another complicating factor: Last year, Progress Energy was in the midst of a companywide early retirement program to cut operating costs. The company's buyout program replaced 1,450 senior workers with 1,000 younger employees, requiring a prolonged hiring spree and retraining efforts.

Prince-Cohee, 31, left her computer programming job at Progress Energy in January after six years for reasons unrelated to health- care coverage. She now works out of her Clayton home for a Florida company that does not offer domestic partner benefits.

Progress Energy's new domestic partners policy contains an expectation of monogamy, although the company says it won't try to verify that rule. Still, the requirement is not imposed on married spouses. Also, domestic partners must live together for at least six months to qualify for health-care benefits.

But that's small consolation for Called2Action.

"An organization should honor and esteem marriage," Noble said. "We're in the South. The vast majority of people in the Raleigh area are going to have traditional, American, Christian values."