Forever 21 is taking some hits from customers after a leaked memo from the company to its employees detailed cuts in employee hours seemingly in response to Obamacare.
In the memo, Carla Macias, associate director of human resources at the company, wrote:
Company-wide, Forever 21 recently audited its staffing levels, staffing needs and payroll in conduction with reviewing its overall spending budget. As a result, we are reducing a number of full-time non-management positions.
Although the company released a statement on Facebook that explained “less than 1% of all U.S. store employees” would be affected, the announcement caused a firestorm.
Hours would be cut to a maximum of 29.5 a week–a fraction less than what the Affordable Care Act designates as full-time. This allows Forever 21 to sidestep the law’s requirement for companies who employ 50 or more workers to provide health insurance coverage for any full-time employees.
The employees whose hours will be cut will lose medical, dental, vision and voluntary coverage on Aug. 31.
Instead of blaming Obamacare, some consumers blamed Forever 21–here, here, and here, for starters.
Forever 21 denied the decision had to do with Obamacare on their Facebook page, saying, “Forever 21, like all retailers, staffs its stores based on projected store sales, completely independent of the Affordable Care Act.”
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