Eleven Nebraska Wendy’s cut employee hours to avoid Healthcare regulations

The phrase “heartless bastard” comes to mind. Though it might also be “opportunistic bastard.” A local Wendy’s franchise is reportedly drastically cutting hours for around 100 employees in order to skirt health care reforms new requirements to provide health care for full-time employees. So a number of Wendy’s are simply making full-time employees part-time employees, and voila! No more health care! (Oh yeah, and the blue collar employees lose a good chunk of their income. Oh well.)

From WOWT in Nebraska:

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.

Wendy’s is in good company. There was the local Denny’s franchisee who came up with the bright idea of tacking on a 5% surcharge to every check to supposedly pay for Obamacare. Or the Applebee’s NY franchisee who claimed Obamacare may force him to institute a hiring freeze. Lots of whiners out there, considering that most of Obamacare hasn’t even been implemented yet. One wonders if this isn’t just a convenient excuse to milk the employees for even more savings at the employees’ expense.
I’m also curious if the national Wendy’s corporation has anything to say about how its franchises treat their employees, especially in cases like this?