TITLE
Recommendation to request City Manager to revisit the decision to reduce the hours of part time and seasonal employees in light of the announced delay of the health coverage mandate until 2015 and the possibility that the definition of who will have to be covered by the mandate may be also changed.
DISCUSSION
Patient Protection Act and Affordable Care Act and Part-time Employees
The Patient Protection Act and Affordable Care Act (ACA) is reforming healthcare in America, through its most significant provisions, such as the employer mandate to provide health care benefits for those employees working 30 hours or more per week that was scheduled to become effective January 1, 2014. The Obama Administration has just announced that this mandate will be delayed until 2015 at the request of businesses. Additionally, because the Affordable Care Act changed the definition of less than full-time to 29 hours a week, many businesses are also lobbying the Administration to utilize the Fair Labor Standards Act definition of 40 hours being full-time and anything less as "part-time" and that only employees working full-time would have to be given health care benefits.
In anticipation of the mandate, the City of Long Beach informed departments which employ staff working less than 40 hours but more than 30 hours per week of this requirement and gave departments leeway to reduce the hours of this staff to below 30 hours per week or not to utilize staff more than 30 hours per week so that health care benefits would not have to be provided. The City Manager has indicated that this impacted 12 percent of the city workforce.
FISCAL IMPACT
Not known as City management did not provide fiscal impact of the current reductions.
SUGGESTED ACTION
Approve recommendation.
Respectfully Submitted,
Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske, Fifth District
Councilman Al Austin, Eighth District
Councilmember Steven Neal, Ninth District