Darden tests limiting worker hours as health-care changes loom

In an experiment apparently aimed at keeping down the cost of health-care reform, Orlando-based Darden Restaurants has stopped offering full-time schedules to many hourly workers in at least a few Olive Gardens, Red Lobsters and LongHorn Steakhouses.

Darden said the test is taking place in "a select number" of restaurants in four markets, including Central Florida, but would not give details. The company said there has been no decision made about expanding it.

In an emailed statement, Darden said staffing changes are "just one of the many things we are evaluating to help us address the cost implications health care reform will have on our business. There are still many unanswered questions regarding the health care regulations and we simply do not have enough information to make any decisions at this time."

Analysts say many other companies, including the White Castle hamburger chain, are considering employing fewer full-timers because of key features of the Affordable Care Act scheduled to go into effect in 2014. Under that law, large companies must provide affordable health insurance to employees working an average of at least 30 hours per week. If they do not, the companies can face fines of up to $3,000 for each employee who then turns to an exchange — an online marketplace — for insurance. "I think a lot of those employers, especially restaurants, are just going to ensure nobody gets scheduled more than 30 hours a week," said Matthew Snook, partner with human-resources consulting company Mercer. Darden said its goal at the test restaurants is to keep employees at 28 hours a week.

Originally posted by ProfEmeritus
We are already seeing the negative effect that Obamacare will have on jobs in the United States. More and more workers will be turned from full-time workers to part time workers, due to this tactic of corporations across the US. Of course, the companies will have to hire more part-time workers, which will actually "lower" the unemployment number.
This is more than accidental, in my humble opinion. This shows how the corporations are working together with government to further the conversion of this country's workforce into a pseudo-slave work force, making minimum wage, unable to support the family, and forced to do whatever the government and the corporations want them to do.
Left untouched, the Affordable Health Care law will turn our nation into a nation where nobody has health care, and those that do manage to get it, will spend a significant portion of their income on it.
Welcome to the New World Order.

the sad thing is it will simply be cutting off their nose to spite their face as many of the patrons of those establishments are lower income people who will no longer have any free spending money for luxuries such as those.....

Among the waivers recently granted were for employers like Darden Restaurants, which operates the Red Lobster and Olive Garden restaurants, for 34,000 of its workers. Federal officials have granted 111 waivers to employers, insurers and union plans, who are responsible for covering about 1.2 million people.

Darden said the waiver would allow it to offer employees access to affordable coverage as the health care law is started.

Orlando-based Darden Restaurants is getting a break on part of the health-care reform law requiring companies to raise significantly annual coverage limits for low-cost insurance plans starting next year.

Darden is among more than 100 companies nationwide that have received one-year waivers, including McDonald's, Ruby Tuesday and Cigna, which writes health insurance plans.

Originally posted by LeatherNLace
Hey, on the bright side, there will be more part time jobs available for the unemployed.

We are seeing more of the fascism that exists in America today. Strong central government breeds even stronger controls and evolves into complete fascism. I think we are well past the point where we could have turned back.

Hey, on the bright side, there will be more part time jobs available for the unemployed.

The government pretends to pay us, and we pretend to work

Sounds to me like Darden is biting the hand that gave them a waiver in the first place,

Nope! I sure didn't fail to understand..... I was well aware of that "one year" statement!

Not necessarily. They could just be looking at the 1-year waiver and anticipating that they won't be getting another waiver next year. That means they will either be forced to screw themselves by kneeling before the government and paying far more for health care or screw their employees to avoid being forced to pay more in health coverage. Let's be realistic here, it is pretty easy to point fingers at the "big bad corporations" for choosing what's best for their bottom lines... but there really isn't a lot of difference between them doing it and the average citizen deciding to follow what is best for them and their family even though it may not be best for everyone else (an example being choosing not to eat at restaurants to save money... it would be clearly asinine to accuse those who prepare all of their own meals of "being selfish" by not helping to support restaurant workers.)

But hell, Obamacare has opened the door for the Feds to require Americans to purchase crap. In a few years who knows? Maybe we'll all be Federally mandated to eat no fewer than 1 meal per week at a restaurant, getting our little IRS: 1023a form stamped as we do so. April rolls around and your form has only been stamped 50 times? Oopsie, you get to pay the IRS a tax on your two non-restuarantized weeks of the year. Too bad, so sad, here's Justice John Roberts' traitorous boot up your ass if you don't appreciate the law.