So today the CEO of "Fatburger" (I've never eaten there and I NEVER will) came out and said his franchises are "sharing associates" to skirt Obamacare and I can guarantee all of the fat, selfish windbags who are covered under their employer's insurance program could care less about the poor souls serving their big FAT ASSES while they bring their sloppy asses into Fatburger everyday and order food.
This shit has got to stop. America is building fucking hospitals in third world countries and shit I'm sick and can't fucking see a damn doctor in FUCKING DALLAS FUCKING TEXAS!!!! WHAT THE FUCK PEOPLE!?
How is it that folks in Iraq can see doctors and dentists and I'm a fucking American living in what "they say" is the greatest country on earth and I can't see a damn doctor OR dentist because I am uninsured?
And on top of it all I have to listen day and night to Republicans BITCH and MOAN about having to provide care for the sick when we are providing care for the SICK except they are all OVERSEAS. What on earth!?
Article is below:
Fast food companies have apparently found another novel way to skirt Obamacare.
Fatburger CEO Andy Wiederhorn told CNNMoney Monday that some owners of his company's franchises have begun sharing workers in an attempt to avoid providing them with health insurance, under President Obama’s health care reform law. Under the franchisees' plan, some employees would work less than 30 hours at any single Fatburger franchise, but upwards of 30 hours per week in total for the chain.
By keeping employees working less than that that 30-hour threshold at each eatery, the franchises can avoid covering their workers under the new health law, commonly known as Obamacare, which requires large businesses to provide health insurance for those working more than 30 hours per week, or face a penalty.
The practice, known as “job sharing,” has been around and controversial since at least the 1940s. But in many cases, franchises shared employees in order to keep them working more than 40 hours a week, but avoid paying them overtime.
The Fatburger scheme is legal, as long as the franchises technically have different owners, according to Catherine Ruckelshous, the legal co-director at the National Employment Law Project, a low-wage worker advocacy group. What would not be allowed is an owner of multiple fast food franchises dividing employees among them to skirt the law, she said.
Fatburger's CEO declined to comment through a spokesperson. But Matthew Haller, a spokesperson for the International Franchise Association, which represents franchise owners nationwide, said sharing employees is one of the many ways franchise owners are coping with the burden they say Obamacare will saddle on their businesses.
"Our members are looking at myriad ways to manage their costs as they seek to deal with Obamacare and one of those ways may be to share hours or to reduce hours," he said.
The Obama administration announced earlier this month that they would delay implementing the employer mandate for another year.
Multiple fast food chains and franchises have slashed workers’ hours to avoid providing them with health insurance under the law. But most employers don't actually plan to cut their workers' hours as a result of the law, a recent study from the Minneapolis Federal Reserve found.
In some cases, franchises may be reacting to perceived requirements that actually won't affect them because they have fewer than 50 employees, according to Saru Jayaraman, the co-founder of ROC United, an advocacy group for restaurant workers. Even some large chains, which will have to cover full-time workers under the new law, have said the burden might not actually be as large as they originally thought, a recent analyst note from Barclays found.
"It's a lot of overreaction, frankly," Jayaraman said.
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