The owner of several Wendy's restaurants in Omaha, Neb., is attempting to avoid paying extra due to Obamacare by slashing hundreds of workers' hours so that they will not be legally entitled to health benefits, WOWT NBC reports.
The company has announced that all non-management positions will have their hours reduced to 28 a week.
Gary Burdette, vice president of operations for the local franchise, says the cuts are coming because the new Affordable Health Care Act requires employers to offer health insurance to employees working 32-38 hours a week.
Under the current law they are not considered full time and that as a small business owner, he can't afford to stay in operation and pay for everyone's health insurance. Burdette reportedly said the decision was not an easy one to make, but that the cuts to hours go into effect in two weeks.
Under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, employers in the U.S. with more than 50 workers are obliged to offer health benefits to "full-time" employees, or those who work at least 30 hours a week. The new law has led some business owners to threaten to reduce employee hours below the weekly threshold in an attempt to avoid the added costs, squeezing low-income workers who depend on hourly pay.
"It has a huge effect on me and pretty much everyone I work with," TJ Growbeck, a Wendy's employee at one of the 11 Nebraska locations affected, told WOWT NBC. "I'm hoping that I can try to get some sort of promotion so I can get my hours," he added.
Wendy's spokesperson said to the Huffington Post that the action was being taken by a Wendy's franchisee, and was not "a company decision."
"Our franchisees are independent businesspeople, and they make the decisions regarding their restaurant teams. As small-business employers, our franchisees are facing rising food and operating costs and many new government regulations," Lynch said.
