January 10—WESTBROOK — The Lee Company.a 75-year-old manufacturer of caps, valves, nozzles and filters of precision fluid control products used in the aerospace, automotive, defense, medical and manufacturing industries. Energy might have found a way to attract the many new workers it needs while keeping those it has happy.
It’s paying their monthly health insurance premiums.
The company on Tuesday released what it called an “unprecedented new healthcare delivery” for its 1,100 employees worldwide, more than 1,000 of whom work at company facilities here and around the world. Essex. Many live in the southeast Connecticut.
From January 1stcompany employees no longer have to pay monthly premiums for Blue Cross Blue Shield Anthem the coverage offered by the company, Bill Leethe company’s chairman and chief executive, announced at a press conference attended by state and local officials.
“It is an extremely proud day for The Lee Company“said Lee, a Connecticut College graduate whose father, Leighton Lee II, founded the company in 1948. “We are delighted to be able to offer this benefit to help ease the burden on employees and their families.”
Employees are always responsible for Anthem Century Preferred Health Plan co-pay and “modest” deductibles. The coverage level of the plan has not changed.
Lee declined to say how much the largesse would cost the company, but according to a study cited in a press release, the average annual employee contribution for family coverage in Connecticut outrun $6,000. The study was carried out by the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
Chris DiPentimaPresident and CEO of the Connecticut Business and Industry Associationa professional group, applauded The Lee Company. for reaching out to employees in a difficult economic climate characterized by record inflation and rising interest rates.
Connecticut faces a “labour crisis,” DiPentima said. “If every unemployed person in Connecticut had a job, there would still be 40,000 vacancies.”
Paul Lavoiethe state’s director of manufacturing, said Connecticut needs more employers to find ways to attract people to the state.
“We need people,” he said.
Mariette Lee, chief operating officer, general counsel and corporate secretary of the company, said the company hired more people last year than any year in its history and expects to hire even more this year. She said she started a training school that new hires attend several times a week “while they’re on time.” More than 100 employees have graduated from the program and another 80 are currently enrolled, she said.
Bill LeeMarietta’s uncle, said the company had invested $200 million in plant, machinery and equipment over the past decade. He added that he also invests in his workforce, offering a fully company-funded profit-sharing plan, performance bonuses, a tuition reimbursement program and a scholarship fund. .
Several workers were made available to journalists during the press conference, including Mark Wolf, a manufacturing supervisor in his 28th year with the company. He remembers having paid a $30 co-payment when his wife was hospitalized during her first pregnancy in 2000. His son, born in 2001, developed complications that required weeks of treatment that resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills.
“That $30 was all I ever paid,” Wolf said.
Karlye De Genaro of Branfordan automated machinery operator, joined the company a few years ago as a temporary employee at the plant Essex ease. She said employees were briefed on the health care provision at a meeting last month.
“For most people it’s not a lot,” she said of the monthly insurance premium they no longer have to pay. “But every little bit counts.”
jeff dicky of Westbrook, executive vice president of hydraulics, has been with the company for 40 years. He said his insurance premium hadn’t changed during that time and he wasn’t sure the news of its removal would elicit a big reaction at the December meeting.
“Basically the place has gone crazy,” he said.
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